What's so special about four leaf clovers?
by Smyde
Summary: [AU]All he wanted was a normal life for a year in Twilight Town. Yet it seems that his know it all brother, a psychopathic English teacher and a new student, plan to derail that course. [AkuRoku][Side: SoRiku, Roxamine, Zemyx] PROM CHAPTER UP!
1. I went to the park, on a sunny day

Greetings all, for this is my first fanfiction and I hope you all enjoy it. Now then let me put down the basics. Don't read if you don't like yaoi. Don't review anything if you have nothing nice to say at all. I suppose that's it…for now x3. Now to lay down your pairings.

Main: AkuRoku (AxelxRoxas)

Side (Implied): Roxmine, Zemyx

I would put SoRiku…but Riku only appears in this fiction as flashbacks. Me so sorry D;

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. If I did then….well more than half the story line would be horribly chopped out. Plus: Not as many cut scenes (seriously there are way to many of them)

But let's begin, shall we 3

* * *

The minute I met him I thought he belonged in an asylum. My brother said I was over exaggerating, but I never doubted myself before, so why start now? Why did I think that every time he sat next to me I was going to be locked up in prison the next morning? Well I bet you would think that too if you had met him back then. Whenever I look back to those days in my sophomore year of high school I laugh. Ironic how a person that I swore I would never be friends with turned out to be someone I trust more with my life than my own brother. Maybe I should start from the beginning of that year. Two years ago when I met someone I would never forget. Since he would never let me that is.

* * *

Back then I was only fifteen, so if you do the math and have been paying attention to what I said you would know that I'm now seventeen. It was on a Monday morning, here in Twilight Town. I live here with my older step-brother, Sora. My father sent me to live here with him and my mother. They just got divorced a while ago and my father noticed how uncomfortable I felt about it, so he decided that I would live here for a whole year. Then I would return back to my home in Transverse Town. 

In all honesty I didn't want to go back there. The place was a piece of rubbish that no one had bothered to sweep under the carpet. There was almost no life at all. Then again, Twilight Town wasn't much fun either. Too sincere and dull for my taste. Maybe I'm just too picky. But I did prefer Twilight Town to Transverse Town any day. People seemed lot nicer.

"Roxas, mom said get up," my brother chimed a yell from downstairs. I completely ignored him. What was he going to do to make me get up from slumber anyway? "Get up right now," he shouted out again, "or I'll sell your collection of video games to Hayner!"

Crap, don't tell me he found them again. I was sure hiding them in a giant box that read 'Roxas's old record collection' was the perfect place, since he was using an mp3 player. Damn spring cleaning. I knew it was plotting against me right from the beginning.

With a splurged groan I pushed myself up from bed. Man I hated mornings. I slugged my head to the side to look out my window. As always the town was in sunset/sunrise mode. It never looked quite like Transverse Town. In Transverse Town the sun would rise to the sky and then plummet to the ground. Here it seemed like it went down but never plummeted. Just hovered in mid-air, like old movies were the ghost was tied up to a thin invisible string. Sora still gets scared of those old movies. I wonder if he knows it's all just fake.

Forcing myself to get up I realized how much I wanted to just fall on my bed and sleep an extra five minutes. The wretched curse of Sunday to Monday transition. I hated it more than I hated him. Who's him? Well wait till I get to school.

I quickly put on my regular outfit, a white jacket with checkers spreading around the front and back over black shirt, black jeans that have white near the knees and red/blue sneakers. Pretty average clothing if you ask me, but Olette seems to swoon over my so called 'fashion sense'.

Heading into the bathroom I started to comb my hair delicately. What I found funny is that people would mistake my step-brother and I for twin brothers. We act like total opposites. While he's happy, charming, as Namine would say, and probably the nicest guy in the whole entire planet there's me. I'm nice on occasion but very groggy, picky and a 'drama queen' according to what my brother tells me everyday in school when I say that the teachers are giving us tests on purpose.

"Roxas you better hurry up, or Hayner will be getting a lot of good birthday presents," Sora chimed from downstairs again. I'll have to remind myself to hide them in a place that he would never ever think of until he's twenty.

I rushed out of the bathroom, forgetting to brush my teeth, in a hurry to make sure Sora wouldn't sell my games. Normally I wouldn't get worked up but when Sora said he was going to do something he meant he was going to do it. I remembered before our parents got divorced and we were freshmen in Transverse Town High School. He said he was going to sneak in on Friday night with Demyx and repaint the whole high school green and pink. When we came back on Monday let's just say that Ansem (1) wasn't very happy about the remodeling. They were caught in the end, as stupid Demyx decided to paint over a number of lockers, in horrible language: "Demyx wuz here". As for Sora, he was ratted out by Demyx. The two didn't speak for a week afterwards.

Once I reached downstairs I saw Sora, smiling with a happy yet devious grin on his face. I twitched my eye and attempted to glare at him correctly. It didn't work out quite as I planned. Only after ten seconds of glaring faced with silence Sora shut his eyes and started to snicker lightly and finally cracked into full blown laughter.

"What's so funny?" I shouted furiously, still glaring at him with my azure eyes.

"Yo-Your glare," he started, trying to hold back his nonstop laughter so he could talk properly, "it reminds me of Olette!"

Dumbstruck couldn't even come close to how I felt when he said that. My glare reminded him of Olette. Was that even possible? I don't look anything like her!

"Well," I started then quickly paused, trying to think of a good come back. "Your laughter reminds me of Namine!" Nice one Roxas.

Sora just giggled sinisterly. "Really, Roxas? Then you should tell Namine that she has a very charismatic laugh."

Crap, I think I'm starting to blush a little. I didn't even know the word 'charismatic' was in Sora's dictionary. It scared me a bit. For all that were wondering, yes. I do have a crush on my friend Namine. Nobody knows except for Sora and I. We might get on each others nerves, but at least he has enough brain to know how to keep a secret. I'm planning on telling her this year. Well I 'was' planning, until that jerk had to come.

Just as Sora opened his mouth, most likely to remark about the unusual shade of pink on my cheeks there was a loud beep from outside. Our transfer bus to the correctional facility, known by adults as 'school', had just arrived outside. Good timing too. I quickly grabbed my black backpack near the front entrance and jetted towards the bus, ignoring Sora's pleas to wait for him. That's what he gets for threatening to sell my video games.

* * *

"Good morning class," started a tall woman in a horribly evil voice. The minute I saw her I wouldn't forget her. If I did then I'm sure her snide attitude would jog my memory. "Now I'm not very formal in introductions, so I'll get to the catch. I'm Larxene and I'll be substituting this dump until your regular teacher comes back from her trip to Destiny Islands I believe," she continued, smirk in a sadistic fashion. Funny part is that we believed her. Within a month she became our permanent teacher for the class, despite her cruel methods of teaching. 

She had short blonde hair that went up to her neck and two sticks of her front hair sticking out like lightning bolts. Don't call her a bimbo just because she's blonde though. Last time someone did that he was found tied up in the boy's bathroom with several bleeding wounds. She was wearing a simple black hoodie; some lose fitting blue jeans and white converse. Her sharp dark blue eyes could make little children cry in terror, and it did one time.

"Now then this is…Literature II, correct?" She asked, her voice seeming to taunt us somehow. Only a couple kids nodded at her, the rest just seeming to completely ignore her existence. Not a good idea we soon discovered. Of course she noticed the lack of enthusiasm. "Well then," she started with a small chuckle, "let's get started."

With those words she took a giant cardboard box out from under her desk and placed it down on an empty desk in the front row. Oh and by 'placed' I mean 'slammed'. At the loud echoing noise of the loaded box slamming on the desk everyone put their attention on her, except for Seifer, who apparently seemed to be sleeping in the back corner. Namine, being the polite girl she was, had leaned in to tap him on the shoulder to wake him up. She was then stopped by a gloved hand grasping her finger. Nobody knows how Larxene got from the front of the room to the near back without making a sound, but nobody questioned it. She shook her head a couple times and let go of Namine's slim finger, and proceeded back towards the front.

"Now then take one book each," she started, taking out one of the many hardcover copies from the cardboard box, "you'll read this book in a week, finish a six paragraph essay on the book in a week, and you'll like it." At her words everyone (besides Seifer) groaned in unison. "Of course you can all take your case to me after school if for some logical reason you can't do this project," she smiled sweetly, but any smart person could see the sarcasm behind it. "I don't think you should bother though, as I'll turn down any reason you have not to do this project." Again, we all groaned.

One by one we took a copy of the book, checking to see what book it was. It was called "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Never heard of him, but changed after that one week of reading his book. Since then I hated him and his excessive use of vocabulary words I never even heard of.

We were given the whole class period to read. Half-way through the class period I managed to get to chapter IV, or four. It was definitely one of the weirdest stories about a guy living next door to a rich person from the army. Tom seemed to remind me a lot of Seifer, for some reason. I broke from my thoughts when I heard a small sneeze coming from the back of the room. Seifer was now slouched up on his desk, rubbing the bottom of his nose carefully. His eyes darted around the room, noticing all of spread out reading the book at our own pace. That clueless look on his face was priceless.

Just then the door was being knocked on. Nobody really paid attention but then I stared at Larxene's brightening devil gaze. "Looks like we have a late man on death row," she chuckled malevolently, starting towards the door of the class. Whoever that was I felt bad that they were about to encore the wrath of our sadistic psychopathic teacher.

Larxene opened the door swiftly, a deadly grin on her face. "Looks like we have a late rat," she snarled, her eyes shooting daggers at the person behind the door. I was about to sit up from my chair and look over to see who it was. That's when I noticed a change in Larxene's facial expression as she held a piece of paper, something scribbled on the yellow lined paper. She examined it for a minute and sighed. "Damn, I can't give detention to you then I suppose," she grumbled, crossing her arms in aggravation, the note slipping from her hand and onto the ground.

The blonde demon walked back to her desk, arms still crossed and eyes scouting over our class. What had happened to the late kid? "Class, it seems you have a new cell mate joining you," she started, putting her hands on her desk. See told you this place was more of a detention center than a school. "C'mon in you," she continues, cracking her head to her side, starring at the door.

Out from the shadows of the outside hallway came in him. A person I would learn to despise, like and regretfully at that time: love.

* * *

(1) Ansem as in Ansem the Wise (also formally known as DiZ) Sorry, no evil silver shiny hair Ansem here XD 

Please review for luff. If not then next chapter Larxene will kill Roxas for no apparent reason. She could do that you know O!!


	2. Went to find luck in that old place

Wow got this chapter down pretty quick for my normal standards owo You should be happy XD

Anywho, the first small paragraph is Sora's POV but after that it'll change back to Roxas again. Oh and in case you were wondering about the chapter titles they will all fit together into a little poem. Please enjoy.

* * *

Out of all the people who were shocked to see him the day that he walked in my little drama queen brother was the most awe-stricken. The guy had bright red hair that stuck out on his scalp like needles. His eyes were green little dots that just screamed doom. Even our crazed sadist teacher didn't have eyes quite like his. Of course his eyes wouldn't scare little children away or haunt you in your deepest nightmares. 

He introduced himself as Axel Namouti.

* * *

"Alright, tell us about yourself in exactly one word," Larxene scowled at Axel, wagging her finger demandingly. "Anymore than that and you will get detention." 

I stared at him a bit longer. He put a hand on his chin, diving into thought about how to describe himself in a limited word. I'm just glad I wasn't new when Larxene was our teacher. It would take forever for me to think of one word that I can describe myself in. Anyways, this is Axel. If I had to describe him in one word it would be plain and simple. Crazed. The guy is full of more clichés and tricks than Demyx. If you have more clichés and tricks then Demyx then you must be something special. Of course I didn't know that at the time, so I probably would have described him as weirdo.

After thinking for a minute, Larxene had enough at glaring spitefully at Axel and snarled. "Look kid, there are more then ten thousand words in the English dictionary. Pick one and sit your ass down."

Axel just snickered a bit at her reaction. Just by looking at him I knew he was the type to look for trouble. With a cocky smile he stared at all of us in the classroom and finally met Larxene's requests.

"Fire."

* * *

Ah, lunch time. Freedom from the colorful bunch of people known as our teachers. They all have insane methods of teaching but they all share one thing in common. All of them love to see us squirm. Adding to my theory that they give us a surplus of tests and projects for their menacing enjoyment. 

I go over to our lunch table, near the middle of the room. By 'our' lunch room I mean Sora, Namine, Olette, Hayner, Pence and my table. We all sit with each other, but I'm a new addition since I just came here in September. Everyone got use to me quick except for Hayner. Now we're best friends. Our table is also the meeting place of the secret W.H.S Club. Standing for of course: We Hate Seifer Club.

"Did you see that new kid in our English class?" Pence started up, taking a bite of his radioactive school lunch.

"New kid?" Olette and Hayner asked in unison. They weren't in our English class, which would explain to you why Seifer was always so bored in it. Hayner and Seifer were mortal enemies, both inside and outside of the school walls. The two knew each other since second grade and they never agreed on anything that the other did.

"His name is Axel," Namine started, tapping her white mechanical pencil on the red round table. "You can't miss him. Bright red hair, tattoos under his eyes."

"Oh, yea him," Olette started, twirling a strand of her brown hair, "he's in our Physics class. Didn't give us an introduction though."

"Well Xigbar was never really cared for introductions," Hayner shrugged back, taking a bite of a piece of onion in his salad.

"Psycho asked him to describe himself in one word," I muttered, looking down at a World History worksheet that I had due for homework today after lunch. Children do yourself a favor in high school. Leave the homework that you have after your lunch periods for the lunch periods. It saves a lot more time for videogames and television in the evening.

"What word was it?" Hayner asked, a bored eyebrow perking up in confusion.

"Fire," Sora chuckled amusingly, taking a bite from his fifth turkey sandwich (the guy has an appetite fit for a lion). Olette made a small giggle in reply but Hayner wasn't amused.

"Just what this dead-beat school needs. Another mad man. Only this one is a pyromaniac. That makes everything better of course," he replied sarcastically, plopping his head onto the red table.

"What makes you think he's a pyromaniac?" Namine asked in confusion, raising her eyes from her tapping pencil to Hayner.

"The word fire, Namine. What do you think comes to mind when you think of guy with 'bright red hair' describing himself with the word fire?" He drolly stated, scratching the back of his ear.

"You're being way too judgmental, Hay-" Namine said, but was put to a halt with a bang of a palm on our table right by her. It was Seifer and his gang of bastards.

"You could have waked me up, y'know?" Seifer growled furiously and rudely at Namine. She looked down at his hard hand smacked on the table up to his cold face. Not something that could scare children like Larxene's eyes, but it had intimidated more than enough people to stray from his path.

"Don't blame her," Sora started, glaring at Seifer with his darker blue eyes. His attempt at glaring was worse than mine and he mocks me! "Larxene stopped her from waking you. Besides, it serves you right for falling asleep in the first place," he scowled at the blonde.

Now he was pissed. Seifer glared coldly at him, a clear death intent located in his eyes. Hayner scoffed sounds of pity in it. That 'jackass formally known as Seifer' darted his eyes at Hayner, aiming his death intent on the dirty blonde boy. "What you have to scoff about, Hayner?" He scowled at the commando wearing boy. I knew where this was heading to. Frankly I didn't like it one bit.

"Who me?" Hayner asked with remarking sarcasm in his voice again. "I'm just looking down upon a scum who has an ego big enough to pick on probably the only girl that would ever be nice enough to talk to him like a normal human being."

Seifer's eyes grew with even more intense rage then usual. I felt a need as Hayner's friend who doesn't want to see him in the hospital with a broken arm to intervene, before any tension between the two rivals increased. "Now just calm down you two," I started, putting a hand on Hayner's scrawny shoulder. Whether Hayner realized or not he was not physically fit. Him fighting Seifer hand to hand would be like a kitten, fighting a ravenous, rabies-infected bull dog. An obvious conclusion.

Seifer decided to be more of an ass than usual and crack a mocking laugh at my concern. "You should listen to Roxy here, Hayner," he stopped with a small pause looking over at me and then back at Hayner, "he seems to be a lot smarter than you."

My ear was then infected by the sound of teeth grinding. The dentist told Hayner to stop doing that, but the guy never liked his dentist. I frowned a bit, knowing he was annoyed. Not at Seifer's cocky attitude but more likely for me sticking up for him. Hayner had more pride than Luxord had theories about why England is better than America in everyway possible. Worse part is that he knows it.

"Just back off, asshole," I snarled at Seifer, putting both my hands on the table and making another attempt to glare at him from across the table. Screw Hayner's pride, Seifer was a jackass. And nobody calls me 'Roxy' and gets away with it.

* * *

You know how it feels when everyone wants something and you have to draw straws. You usually want the shorter end of the straw, since that's how most people play it. Right now though I think in this drawing I got the shortest end of the stick, and I'm not too ecstatic about it. 

Right now I'm across the street from our high school. Apparently Seifer had managed to chase me out of the cafeteria, out of the school building and we were now in the deserted park outside our school. I call it deserted because that's what it is. No children ever come around here anymore. Most of the high schoolers come around sometimes and maybe some parents with little infants, but that's all. I don't blame them. Twilight Town has a few more parks that look much nicer and presentable.

Surprisingly I was much faster than him. What sucked was that he had much more stamina. Soon enough he would catch me and then what? I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to commit first degree manslaughter on me. Looking back I could see Seifer gaining up on me and from afar distance I could see Sora and Hayner, rushing into the park. At least Seifer wouldn't be able to kill me now with witnesses.

I quickly turned a corner, hoping to loose him in the rusty ruins of what used to be a jungle gym. The place seemed bigger now that it was both deserted and becoming a rust heap. Why don't they just close this place down? Damn government. I quickly looked around the spacious rust park, hoping to find a place that would not only hide me but would also not cut me up. It was remotely hopeless to find a place like that, and Seifer was catching up.

Next thing I knew my arm was grabbed and I was being pulled to the far left of the dead park. My eyes jolted to the person who had grabbed my arm but it wasn't Seifer. It was some guy, wearing a black hoodie over his head. His arms seemed pretty scrawny, but he was able to pull me with ease. My head was starting to spin as he pulled me deeper into the rusted playground. I think I pricked my skin a bit from the plants around us. The playground was stupidly put near a small forest that led into a brook. Our governor must have been on ecstasy or something to be stupid enough to put a park filled with little fleshy children next to a deep forest probably filled with wild animals.

He then sled to a halt and he placed me behind a giant tree trunk. Before I could hit him and ask him what the hell he was doing he put a gloved finger to my lips. Why was he wearing gloves in spring? He quickly took it off my chapped lips and walked out into the open. Was he going to try and take Seifer on alone?

"Hey you, did you see a puny blonde haired kid run through here?" I am not puny! Had to resist the urge to go out and kick Seifer in the shin. I probably wouldn't be able to anyways.

"Yea," started a second voice. I assumed it was the voice of my savior. "He went that way," he continued, pointing in another direction I assumed.

At the end of his sentence I heard sneakers clapping on the stone pavement of the park. As they continued they started to echo louder and then softer. A couple minutes of anxiety boiling through my veins the echoing seized entirely and the stranger came back around the tree. "It's safe now."

I took a small gulp of dry saliva and started to pant like a dog on a hot summer day. Except my tongue wasn't out of my mouth. Sweat ran down my skin gently and my peripheral vision watched the hooded man walk away from the scene. I shot my head up and slowly turned around the tree, watching him walk back into the park. My throat became a bit rasped so I didn't say anything but just as he was reading my mind he twisted his head back to my pathetic view and chuckled.

"Lunch is going to be over in 5 minutes, so I suggest you get going back too."

Lunch was going to be over. Did I really run from Seifer for over 30 minutes? Oh crap. I didn't finish Luxord's World History worksheet!

* * *

"Looks like I finally got you, kid," Luxord chuckle delightfully as he stared at the top of my blonde spikes. My face was currently watching my wooden desk. I knew he was smirking at my failure, but I didn't want to give his smirk recognition of existence. "I know you haven't been doing your homework at home, but never had any proof. Now here it is. You don't know how many months I've waited to catch you without homework." 

Damn Luxord. Damn History. This public taunting has just shot him up to my second hated teacher on my top '10 most hated teachers'; right below Larxene. I grumbled an indistinguishable curse onto of the desk and groaned. Now not only he was going to give me detention he was going to call up my mom and tell her that I haven't been doing my World History homework. I feel sick.

"Cheer up, Roxas," Sora said in a nervous yet utterly cheery voice. His lips said 'cheer up' but his mind was probably processing 'sucks for you'. I'm just lucky Seifer wasn't in my World History class otherwise I would have him glaring at me, formulating a horrid plan to kill me after school. He was probably doing that right now, but without the comfort of knowing he's psyching me out.

I lifted my head up enough so that my eyes were now viewing Luxord as he wrote some assignment on the chalkboard. Normally I would have groaned in both annoyance and stress but I was still tired from being chased over half a block by Seifer. Who was the guy that saved me though? I shut my eyes tight, trying to gain thought process back.

"Wake up, Roxas. Or I'll tell your mum that you were sleeping in class like the lazy bastard you are too."

Well at least he told me to wake up as nice as he humanly could. Larxene would have just screamed in my ear or bang my head with a text book. Teachers are out to get us.

* * *

All done D Slightly over the number of words for the last chapter. Lots more dialog too Review as always for your reviews make me smile 8D

**What do you think is the most likely thing to happen in the next chapter of these three things:**

**Seifer becomes less of an asshole?**

**Axel and Roxas kiss?**

**Larxene and Axel get into a fight?  
**

**The answer in the next chapter ;D**


	3. Colors so bright, an amazing sight

**Hello again. Sorry this chapter took so long. What awaits you in this dear chapter, well only you can know, since I'm not telling you literate morons 83 Well have fun. I present to you all chapter three.**  
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I missed my favorite show again. Sora lost his locker key so we had to look in every class we went to during the day. By the time we were done he found his key was in his left pocket instead of his right pocket. We missed the bus, so we had to walk about ten blocks just to get home. I could have had any older brother in the world. The world and it's screwed up legal system made him my older brother.

Our mom was still at work at 4:00pm and wouldn't be home until seven. That meant I had time to prepare for a long winded lecture about why I should do my crazed history teacher's homework. I entered my room, dragging my backpack carelessly on the carpeted ground. That's when an echoing shriek from down stairs infested my ears. Sora must have found Marius. Who's Marius?

Marius was a deformed cookie that Sora bought at lunch about a week ago. He carried Marius around everywhere he went. If anyone tried to steal Marius Sora would go on a rampage. Hayner was over at our house yesterday while Sora went to the post office with mom to pick up his letters from his old friends, Riku and Kairi. So while we were in the kitchen Hayner found Marius. He didn't know how much Sora was obsessed with the deformed cookie so he took a bite of him. When I found Hayner with Marius I told him to hide him in the freezer. I guess stupid me forgot there was ice cream there.

I slowly threw my backpack filled with learning rocks on my bed and went to lock my door, knowing Sora would run up stairs and maul me for an explanation as to why Marius was bitten. With a soft groan I shook my head and unzipped my backpack carefully. As the door started to bang from Sora's fists attacking it I reached my hand into the backpack like a little kid would reach into his bag of candy and picked out 'The Great Gatsby'. I continued to ignore the headache inducing bangs at my door and sat down on my computer chair, casually opening the book and starting to read from were I left off in class.

_I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild strident argument-_

"Roxas, open up right now!" Sora cried from outside the room, still hitting it fiercely. I ignored him.

_-which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed to their share of-_

"What happened to Marius, Roxas? Answer me!" The whinny boy dubbed as my older brother continued to cry out. My eye twitched as I continued to ignore him.

_-human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life._

"Roxas!" Sora screeched for a final time, banging his fists harder then before. Somehow he managed to move the little lock twister of my side of the door handle and the door swung open.

Can't even get through one paragraph without him disturbing me I guess. I lightly shut the book and started to listen to the onslaught of worthless grabble spewing from my brother's mouth. This must be how Nick feels when he talks to Tom.  
------------------------  
I watched the ceiling light on the ceiling in my bedroom flicker on and off. Mom got her call from Luxord but was too tired to talk to me about it today. In my best interest I told Sora about what happened to Marius, knowing I would regret it tomorrow when Sora would went berserk on Hayner. Just my luck, right?

Making a little sigh I shifted to the right side of my bed. I was supposed to be asleep about two hours ago but I couldn't focus on resting. My head was still a bit discombobulated about what happened during lunch. Who was that guy that saved me from Seifer? I don't think I know him. He knew that we had to go back to class, so he had to be in my school. Now I feel sick. Then my thoughts shifted slowly over to upcoming events in our school year. There was the matter of prom night. The school had scheduled it sometime in April since our school gets out in May. It was March already. Time goes by much faster than you even know it seems.

I groaned a bit and started to think about it more. How was I going to gather up the courage to tell Namine I liked her and scrap up what's left of that courage to ask her to the prom? It made me feel sick when I thought about it even more, because I think I only like Namine because she reminded me of someone.

She reminded me a lot of Kairi, one of Sora's friends and the girl I had a crush on before I moved away to Twilight Town for a year. They looked so similar, besides their obvious contrasts in personalities. But when it came to physical aspects if Namine was just a bit darker skinned, had ruby colored hair and was just a bit taller they would look exactly a like. It scared me because if I told Namine I liked her then what would happen? I was going to go back to Destiny Island afterwards anyway, so what would happen to us? Was it even worth telling her about my crush on her? Great now I'm on the verge of tears.

Tightly my eyes shut, trying to block out images of Kairi and Namine comparisons. I was too confused. Maybe I needed therapy? Without further interruptions I found myself gently flowing off into sleep. The last thing on my mind was the hooded man who saved me from Seifer.  
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School started off with our Physics class today. Our teacher was a man with a pirate complex named Xigbar. Now overall I think he was a good teacher. Has a master's degree in science and was probably the most qualified out of all the teachers I had. Looking at a view of sanity you could profile by the very fact that he had an eye patch that there was good 75 chance of him being insane. He digressed off topics more than the students, drabbled on about how the coffee in the teacher's lounge was too cold and had the weirdest accent in the world. Yes even weirder than Luxord's. It was a bit frightening to be with him in the morning.

"Now look you little morons." There he goes again. This is going to take a while. "I might as well break it to you now. Half of you aren't going to even make it through your senior year without passing. Don't get me wrong a lot of you sophomores have the potential to pass. That percentage isn't in this class though."

I ruffled my hair with my hand a bit, trying to release my tired thoughts leftover from last night. Thanks to the deadly horrors of insomnia I didn't get a good night of rest. Being in Xigbar's class was the last thing I wanted to do today. Actually the last thing I wanted to do today was go to school, period.

"So let me make it clear for all of you who are trying their hardest to succeed in this class. Don't try to succeed because if I don't like you I won't pass you. I don't care if you say it's my job to pass you. My real job is to just teach you and not give a crap whether you pass or not. So get over it," he finished, sitting on his desk with his leg dangling carelessly over the desk.

The bell finally ranged coarsely through my ears. I muttered a curse under my breath and swung my bag over my shoulders. My horrendous school morning wasn't finished yet though. Now I had a class with Larxene. I think I hate Tuesdays more now.

My head lightly fell on the wooden desk in the giant blue English room. There was a chorus of chatter amongst the students, as Larxene stood outside the room waiting for the second bell to ring. A small thud chimed through my ears, I ignored it. Then I felt someone poking my hair lightly with a warm finger. I grumbled under the desk and slowly moved my head up to see the poker. At first sight an incredibly bright color of red engulfed my eyes. The color couldn't be natural, right? My head shifted up further to see the red-haired owner's face. It was the new kid from yesterday, Axel was it? Forcing a small annoying blink I moved my body to lie against my chair and made a small sigh. "What is it?" I asked wearily, stretching my arms a bit.

"Mind if I sit here?" He asked with what could be described in a children's picture book as a happy go-lucky grin. It gave me the feeling that the temperature either got a few degrees higher or lower at the very moment his slinking grin showed up. Like a bad house guest I doubted it would go away too soon.

"Sure." What? I suppose to say no, not sure! What possessed me to let that maniac sit next to me? Stupid light-headed, insomnia induced Roxas.

The bell rang again. Time to listen to Larxene child self-esteem crushing speech. It was going to be a long hour, that's for sure. The crazed blonde shut the door mere seconds after the bell rang and was making her way to her desk. Her trademarked smirk danced around her lips evilly. We expected her to go and start crushing us, but she seemed to go right in front of Axel's desk all the sudden.

"Welcome to the army, maggot," she chuckled malevolently. "Now that you're here let's get a few rules straight. Number one: Don't talk unless spoken to. Number two: Act like a bastard and I'll just beat the crap out of you, rather than call your parents. Three-"

"Isn't 'beating the crap out of me' against school rules?" Axel replied with a wagging finger. Most people took it as stupid curiosity, but with a smirk evident on his face he was definitely trying to push Larxene's buttons.

"Not in my house, bastard," Larxene scowled, banging a gloved palm on his desk. "Now as I was saying. Rule three is of course the golden rule that everyone should abide by. If you sleep we won't disturb you, but we won't tell you our lessons," she then cocked her head to turn to Seifer, who was tapping his fingers lightly on his desk, "isn't that right, Seifer?"

Seifer moronically raised his head and put a dumbfounded look on his face. Everyone would have bursted out in tears and laughter at Larxene's reply but we all knew that Seifer would probably beat us up after school. Of course this didn't stop everyone. At the moment stupid look on Seifer's face appeared Axel started to snicker and then shortly bawled out in laughter. All of us just stared at him, wondering if he was crazy. Then hearing a small mutter that went something like 'at least someone has a backbone' I turned my head back to face Larxene, who was smiling not evilly but proudly at Axel's laughter. I knew her for about six to seven months now and never saw her smile like that.

Seifer's look turned sour and he crossed his arms and stiffly kept them on his thin stomach. Why did I suddenly feel an aura of impending doom?

"Now we go away from the humor," our oh-so-lovely-hated teacher started up, slapping Axel's cheek lightly to make him stop laughing, "and return to our original plan."

"Right I gottcha," Axel slyly replied, reaching into his baggy pants pocket. Why did he wear such baggy pants, thing were bound to fall right out. His pale lanky hand then emerged with a brown leather wallet, the kinds big cooperate guys always carried around along with their checkbooks and their credit cards. He then took out two ten dollar bills out from the wallet and put both on the desk. "Okay here is ten for the hair cut and another ten to buy you a nice prostitute who'll take care of you. Remember to skip on the STDs," he added, another happy smirk wiping on his face.

Half the class, including myself, were holding back the urge to laugh at his horrible comment about Larxene. We then saw her smirk turn into an angry teeth-grinding scowl. That was not good sign in any way possible.

"Alright then," Larxene replied, the scowl turning into a sadistic smirk. The aura just got stronger and continued to mock all around it. She took one of the ten dollar bills and suddenly stuffed it down Axel's collared shirt. His mouth opened to react to her movement but with his mouth open he was entering a deadly trap. No one predicted what would happen next though. She swiftly took his lips into a malicious smooch like kiss and as quickly as she went in she went out and ended the joke like kiss. This time nobody held back their laughs at the suddenly awe stricken Axel, except for me. I was still staring at Axel's face. The expression was priceless, yet for some reason I wasn't laughing. Had I become jealous? No, that's impossible.

Larxene started to move her mouth around and then launched out a small spit wad at the ground. She then gently wiped her lips with her gloved hand and chuckled. "Thanks for your service, jackass. Not the best kiss I experienced though."

The bell then rang abruptly, halting the laughter among the students. To think all that happened in an hour. Poor Axel just learned why Larxene was awarded the 'most crazed' teacher in the school last year. Too bad he lost his virginity to it.  
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"She kissed him!" Hayner cried out in astonishment. We were in the hallway in between classes. We had ten minutes to do whatever we had to do and then the class began. I had met up with Hayner, who was trying to avoid Sora. He was mad when I told him that Sora found out about who took a bite out of Marius, but it seemed his mood was uplifted when I told him about the event in English class between Larxene and Axel. Before I could answer him with an ensuring yes he started to wildly laugh.

"We were all surprised too," I commented, shaking up my blonde hair with my hand. Hayner was tearing up and he still wouldn't stop. I lightly patted his back, making sure he wouldn't stop breathing in between laughs.

"It wasn't that great," said the familiar voice from English class, "her lips tasted like poison too."

I turned my head to come into eye contact with Axel, who was lying against the green lockers behind us. I noticed his lips were chapped, probably from Larxene's kiss. Poor guy didn't seem to like it either.

"So…how was…the kiss?" Hayner asked in between pants, his inhaling begging for breath.

Axel just made a smug chuckled and lightly sighed. "She didn't do much, but I think this wasn't her first time going into something sudden."

Hayner just shot out laughing again. I wanted to laugh but I just felt uneasy about it. Not to mention if I was going to laugh as crazy as Hayner then who would pat my back so I wouldn't die? Axel rolled his eyes and shook his head at Hayner in disappointment. "Your friend is going to die from laughing about this," he said with an added grin at me, eyes radiating holes into my own. I made a quick blink and continued to pat Hayner's back. Axel's eyes, in my own opinion, appear as though they were dumped into a radioactive bin and placed into his eye sockets when he was born. No one's eyes could be so radiant and entrancing at the same time. Except for-

"Hey Roxas, is Hayner okay?" A small voice asked from my side. I turned my head to meet eye to eye with Namine, clutching her art pad to her flat-chest as she looked at Hayner who seemed to become calmer at her presence. That's how she always was it seemed. Anytime she was around someone a sudden impulse of peace coursed through your veins, acting on a wave of sunshine and a rush of adrenaline. Wow that was overly poetic.

"I'm okay, Namine," Hayner quickly said, answering for me since I entered a daze. Sora said I did that a lot and he got it from him. Whenever he said that I decided not to remind him that he was my step-brother and had no blood relation to me.

"I see you two made a new friend," She said in a whispering voice. I don't think either Axel or Hayner noticed it but Namine's face looked distraught for two seconds before it changed back into a weary smile.

"Oh yea," I quickly stated, not allowing Hayner to answer this time. "This is Axel." What idiot am I? Of course she knows who he is; we have the same English class together!

Axel just simply waved a pale hand at Namine, and she just looked nervously at him. I never seen the girl so tensed in the few months that I've knew her. "Well I think I should go now," Axel rushed out of his mouth, "Class starts in a couple minutes and I need to rush."

At that time I was about to ask him what he had next but he didn't even bother to look back to tell me. Back at that very moment I was too caught up in Namine's presence to even question why he seemed so familiar just talking so calmly like that. I wanted to tell Namine bye but she had already started on her way to art class. Hayner, who was only by my side two minutes ago had disappeared. My ears wanted to spurt out blood as a familiar chime rang through my ears. I was late to Health.

"Looks like someone is late again," a cold voice crept down from my ears to my spine. Was it natural to have more than one doom feeling in less than two hours?

_It made me uneasy, as thought the whole evening has been a trick of some sort to exact a contributary emotion from me._  
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**Dude I totally nailed you all with a quadrupled pairing of LarAxel, AkuRoku, KaiRoxas and Roxamine. Totally didn't see that one coming :B**

**But yay its done xOx About five pages on word in Arial font, size 10. My face feels cold from the winter, which sucks a lot for me ;w; Gaaaaah.**

**Anyways for all of those that read Superfluous and are joining us I'm Symde and this is my first entry on even though I have been book marking and reading stories since around August. For all of those that don't know what Superfluous is I suggest you read it, review and watch it 8D**

**Also on another note: I'm not sure if it's spelled contributary or contributory, but I'm taking it as a direct quote from the book (guess which book kids :D). Sorry it took so long but I've had real life issues for a week or so. On a good note I have planned out the chapters. There will be nine chapters so for all those that can do basic addition you should know how many more chapters there will be.**

**Does anyone else get insomnia and then just hates going to school? That's me basically half the school week. Well time to watch Mononoke Hime and play more Final Fantasy III for the DS. Until the next time we meet.**


	4. But I only awed at small green leaves

Hello all. Sorry for the wait, but this is the part where things are going to actually start getting good OX I swear. But before I get ahead with the story I need to say: THANKYOUFOROVER500HITSILOVEYOUTOT! Seriously I didn't expect it to reach 500 hits DX Let's try for a 1,000 now -shot-

And speaking of stats, here's just a small list of what I'm hoping for in regards to stats by the end of the story:

Over 1,000 hits  
Over 30 reviews (everyone has to start somewhere)  
Over 20,000 words  
Over 20 favorites  
Over 20 alerts

XD Standards are fuuun Well have fun with my footnotes and hidden messages ;D  
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"Thank you for joining us, Roxas," the chill voice of my Health teacher whooshed cautiously into my ears. That feeling felt like the one you would get when you were watching a suspenseful horror film, which got you wondering what the hell would happen next? "Congratulations, you have a reserved spot at Saturday detention." That's what we call the penultimate moment that got my life were it is today. At that time it just seemed like something I could blame both on Hayner and Axel during our study hall today.

As I took my seat my Health teacher, a man who looks like he was in a homicide once in his life time, walked over to the disciplinary officer that brought me here, a brute looking man named Xaldin. Xaldin had been working in the academy for over five years now. At first he was the gym teacher but when one day he broke off a fight between three guys and a hockey stick the superintendent promoted him to a disciplinary officer. What did that mean? It meant he got to torture children with strict policies and got a fatter deposit in his bank account. He had long dread locks that made people think he was a stereotypical wanna-be white Jamaican. His face was shaped to think he was someone who would work for terrorists or would be the character in your favorite video game that would always piss you off **(1)**. I found it personally hilarious how our school superintendent, or as he liked to call himself the School Superior, employed the weirdest bunch of teachers you would ever meet. Maybe he just did it to get company that was as much as a freak show as he was.

The door abruptly shut closed, and my Health teacher started to stroll back to the front of the room. He had long pastel blue hippie hair that from the back looked like the length of hair a girl would normally have. Side burns sticked on the side of his head, unmoving unlike the rest of his hair when he turned to us. His eyes were blood red, but not looking bloodshot as many eyes would when drunk. Right now he wasn't drunk, and thank goodness. He was drunk only once and that day a kid got himself flung across the room, the victim of a realistic example of how babies are born. I don't think the boy sued, quite threatened by the thought that he would be killed by Saix, our health teacher, if he did such a thing. Saix really did look menacing. No one ever disturbed his class and if they did then they would end up on the six o'clock news that evening. It never happened before but rumor control was never ceasing.

"Alright class today's topic is on genetic enhancement, through drugs," Saix started boldly, writing the topic on the giant chalkboard, as I shut my ears so that shrieks of the 'nails on a chalkboard' through his rigid writing. Well at least his crazed voice and purposely bad chalk use would keep me up.  
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"Y'know Roxas it's not all bad," Axel started, stretching his arms tiredly. Not that bad, he says? "After all I got a Saturday detention too and so did Hayner." Well that knowledge did make me feel better. Though I only started to speak to Axel on that day I felt comfortable being with him. It felt incredibly outlandish though because I knew Hayner for about six to seven months but still even though I was comfortable around him it just wasn't the same feeling as with Axel. It never occurred to me why though.

"Well that's good, I guess." Emphasize the word guess. Axel still made me feel like I was friends with someone who would be most likely to accomplish burning down a whole town in less than two hours. It was frightening to be okay with him being my friend. Could I even consider him a friend? Hasn't even been a day and feel like I'm babbling.

"You aren't babbling, Roxy," Axel suddenly blurted out from nowhere. Damn my last thought had spewed out accidentally and now- wait did he call me Roxy?

"Don't call me Roxy," I grumbled at him, lightly punching him right arm. He closed his eyes and squinted in pain. It wasn't sarcastic as people might have thought it was because I only heard some light seething from the small tight gaps of his teeth. Did something so frivolous hurt that much?

"Okay, okay," he grumbled, rubbing the spot of his arm that was carelessly hit. I raised an eyebrow at him but didn't question his genuine pain.

By that time we got to the lunch room we dispersed and I went to my usual table while he went to hang out with his new friends. I was surprised that he got so many friends in such a short time. Maybe he was just easy to adapt. He had a few friends I never even saw before (the school has roughly 400, 500 students in it) but one of them I did recognize from my physics class. His name was Zexion Tabushiro. Now he was the class wonder. He was always quiet and never seemed to laugh at any kind of joke that either the class or Xigbar threw out on occasion. Most of the time he would just stay quiet and read one after one depressing book written by crazed psychopaths, yet scored first in our class on every test. He was a senior in high school and was the most likely person you would suspect being gay. Nothing was said for sure but Axel has a good guess, saying that his hair smells a bit like lilacs. I don't know anybody else, besides Selphie, who ever used lilac scented shampoo.

Lunch proceeded as per usual day. Half the table getting into an argument, me doing my World History homework (screw Luxord and his fake British accent. If I can do my history homework in school as easily as I could do it at home then why can't I do it at lunch?) and of course Seifer's usual annoyance. Only this time it wasn't done at our table.

"You must think you're really that great, don't you?" Seifer smugly asked Axel at his table, his brain unaware that there were people at the table that could wrestle him to the ground.

"Well it's not everyday your teacher decides to sexually harass a student by kissing said student," Axel quickly retorted, gliding a hand over his fire red hair casually. "So I do consider myself student of the day, in some sort of way."

"Aren't you the smart ass," Seifer added, his tone becoming less smug and more serious. Not in a good way, but more of a way that you knew that the invisible wall between the two teenagers was going to crumble quick. "Smart asses aren't my favorite type of asses." Wow that sounded incredibly awkward and wrong, especially when you say it to a guy.

"Do you mind taking your nonsense somewhere else, Mr. Katimi?" A cool voice started behind the paperback version of _'The Bell Jar'_**(2)** softly, but demandingly enough for the arrogant blonde to listen up. Wow, Zexion was actually talking for once. Either Seifer was really unfortunate or incredibly lucky/honored.

"I don't have any problem with you, Zexion," Seifer calmly replied, eyes still adjusted in a daggering glare at Axel. It was true. Zexion definitely had what normal psychologists would call a superiority complex of sorts, but he wasn't the type to quickly jump the gun at someone if they piss him off. Someone like Zexion was a true oddball in a high school.

"Neither do I, Seifer," Zexion said about a minute later, flipping a page of his book. Either he just wasn't paying attention to what he was reading or he was just like Sora. He could read a long winded book that made no sense half the time and could pay attention to a pointless conversation. "Though you are being quite loud."

"Don't be a prick," Seifer growled, eyes quickly darting angrily at Zexion. Oh great here comes another damn doom feeling.

"Are you really so insecure that you would call me what you are?" Zexion inquired, putting his book down and raising his eyebrow. "Honestly you aren't proving anything to anybody so go away."

Seifer flashed Zexion another glare. Looks like someone is going to be on the news tonight. Before he could move someone grabbed his shoulder. He looked back and his face turned from anger into respect. "Enough Seifer. You don't want to be suspended, do you?" The calm evil voice rang out chilling throughout my ears. Vexen, or Even as our superintendent called him, was the second disciplinary officer and the more logical of the two. He always took his job more seriously than Xaldin, even though he occasionally rants about how he should be the science/physics teacher and not Xigbar. Ironically he's the one that says 'jealously corrupts'.

At that time the annoying monotone bell dropped drolly through my ears. With the opening chime half the cafeteria had risen to their feet and shuffled out of the large room. Half of them exited quick and silently, while others took their precious time to talk with friends as they walked to different classrooms. I on the other hand had yet another epidemic on my hands.

I forgot the answer to #6.  
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"You little twit," Luxord hissed in my face during World History. So apparently I didn't get #6, so he suspected that I didn't look in the world history text book, meaning I did the homework at lunch. I don't know where he got that insane logic from but I wouldn't give him the taunting pleasure to tell him he was right. "Idiots like you never learn to do your work on time. It's a disgrace!"

After going on what seemed like an endless rant of taunts and 'In my day' phrases he finally started to teach the lesson. It was only half as interesting as it could be because we were going to study Pearl Harbor and he kept saying how Americans were such idiotic pansies to not protect this one segment better. This was an unwavering topic that he stood on, no matter what someone brought up. Hell Sora even tried to digress purposely by briefing us on Japan's advance technologies. It was working too, until he mentioned about their military capabilities, which led Luxord to talk about how America was 'so bloody damn' inferior to every country besides Africa. Half of us were about to remind him that Africa is a continent and not a country, but then the bell rang yet again. Is it me or is this day becoming increasingly annoying by the hour.

Incredibly my final period was cancelled. Apparently the biology teacher was out again. Something about being sick. So school was let out early for once. Thank goodness too. If he was to rant to me about something totally unrelated to the class then I would just loose it. Whoever said teachers don't have any problems are wrong beyond their wildest imagination.

I got home first since Sora doesn't have biology class with me. Mom was gone at work as always and I had spare time to myself. So what else to do but sit on my ass and play videogames. Maybe this time I could finally beat Guardia **(3)**. I sat on the living room sofa for about two hours or so and turned off and turned back on the game several times. That stupid white mage whore kept dying on me whenever he launched his damn thunder attack, so it took me a while. In the end I died again. Maybe I should consider changing Ingus to a Dragoon.

Right when I was about to beat him at long last Sora burst through the door, startled me and I accidentally hit my finger on the power off button of my Nintendo DS. Okay Roxas relax. Don't do anything homicidal with the kitchen knives.

"Roxas, you won't believe this!" He pepped up, shaking me like mad. He's damn right I don't believe this! My idiotic older brother just screwed up my game and he doesn't even realize it. Easy Roxas don't strangle him. "I got a letter from Riku! He said that Kairi, Demyx and he are going to come over to Twilight Town for spring break in April. They'll be here for the prom too, isn't that awesome?"

"That's great, Sora. Just make sure I don't see you and Riku making out in the closet." Oh nice one! I think I deserve a pat on the back for that.

"Don't worry about that, Roxy," he said with a sneer. Damn that accursed nickname, "by the time I get there you and Namine will probably be occupying it, so I wouldn't want to disturb you." Crap how much I hate him and his comebacks. One day I will get him.

Mom came back home later today. This time she caught me before I locked myself in my room and talked to me about how I need to do my homework at home. Like all lectures it was incredibly boring and you only really catch the last finishing line. After what seemed like a talk that took for eternity the eternity rested in mourning peace.

Tomorrow morning was not going to be fun. At all.  
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I sat on one of the blue sofa pull down chairs in the giant auditorium of the school. Several other people sat in the auditorium, a few which I didn't recognize. Most of them were either reading or sleeping. Our watcher for today was Vexen, who had the 'I hate being here as much as you do' look plastered on his face as he sternly watched over the room. He knew that he was suppose to make sure people were doing work but he also knew that if people misbehaved they would have to stay here an extra hour. Something he did not want to do _at all_. Hayner arrived a while ago but quickly dozed off, saying he just wants to go back to sleep by any means necessary. I don't blame him at all. No one likes waking up early on a Saturday. Strange thing was Axel didn't show up just yet. It worried me a little.

Wait, what am I saying? Am I worrying about that pyromaniac nut job? It must be the morning wake up call. Didn't have time to make coffee, seeing as I woke up an hour before the detention began.

"Sorry I'm late, Roxy," quietly whisked the devil as he sat by my side. Damn Axel. "Did you miss me?"

"Hardly," I grumbled, slouching down in my chair a bit further. He didn't know at that time that I was never a morning person. Sora loved mornings, babbling about how great the start of a day could be. It sickened me to see how I could possibly be related to him. Then again we were step-brothers. How did that happen you ask? Well before I was born my mother was married to another man and he already had a previous son from his first marriage. That was Sora. After Sora's real dad died my mother took custody of Sora and married again to my dad and they had me. It's really a mere coincidence that we look so much alike. So that's why my mother is my own mother, but Sora is still my step-brother. A lot of people get it mixed up, so we tend to say in public that we're half-brothers.

"That's so horrible, Roxy," he dramatically cried, putting a hand on his forehead and laying down into his chair like he was immobile. "How could you not remember us?!"

"There was never any 'us'," I quickly retorted, making an anger dramatic soap opera voice, which would always replace the actor's voice when he was being serious. Man I hate it when Sora makes me watch them, "you never cared. And don't you call me 'Roxy'."

Instead of making an equally dramatic gasp of sheer anguish he just laughed cynically. "Not bad at all, Roxy. You'd make a fine actor."

For some reason my face started to feel hotter. Was I blushing? No that's impossible! I only blush when Namine's around, and that's because I know I like her. But why the hell would I blush at Axel? Great now I'm babbling in my own head and this means I could be crazy. Oh perfect, I'm sexually confused and I'm going mad.

"You better watch yourself, Roxy. I had a friend who got into an asylum once," he quickly said, lying back coolly in his sofa chair. Great now my mind is escaping my mouth. "So are you going to ask that Namine girl out to the prom?" Wait what?!

"What do you mean, I don't like Namine," I quickly blurted out, trying to avoid blushing in front of him again. Man this was embarrassing.

"Really Roxy?" I swear if he doesn't cut it out I'm going to drive a bowling ball into his big mouth. "Didn't think you swung that way," he chuckled suggestively. Wait…what?

Before I could argue with him about thinking I was gay he sat his knees on the sofa chair and leaned over me, his hot yet cold breath trickling down my neck. I think I was blushing again. "Well if you really are sure you don't have a thing for her, I suppose that means you're open." I was frozen in my seat, my eyes just staring at him in awe, like he was just the giant sky itself. My heart threatened to burst from my chest and a mixture of cold and hot droplets fell from my hair. Bright sinister emerald eyes looked down on me with desire and lust. This was not going to turn out well.

"Mister Namouti," calmly said a reliving chilling voice that speculated my pending doom. "I don't appreciate it when students try to molest each other in public. Now please sit down." Molest each _other_? Was he actually suggesting I wanted to get molested by Axel?!

Axel quickly retreated back to his seat and groaned. "Sorry Roxy, but I guess we'll have to help ourselves for now."

We sat in silence the rest of the time. Every second felt like a month and every minute a year. It was exhausting. By the time the hour was finally over I was well over 200,000 years old. When I turned around after Vexen said we could leave Axel had already disappeared, along with a sleeping Hayner.

_They were gone, without a word, snapped out, made accidental, isolated like ghosts even from our pity._

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**(1) **Xaldin is like the most bastard boss in Kingdom Hearts 2. I swear I fought him like for two hours. Just lucky Mickey saved my ass so many times  
**(2) **Read The Bell Jar as a summer reading assignment D: I swear it is the most creepiest book I have ever read ;w; That's to be accepted since the author committed suicide eventually herself.  
**(3) **The boss I am currently trying to beat in Final Fantasy III for the DS. I swear that lightning attack is a bitch DX 

Not my best chapters to be honest D: Kind of hoped it to turn out better. But I did leave you with AkuRoku fluff, a plot device and more characters XD Hooray. Also I'd like to make one thing clear: **Zexion is not going to be an emo in the story. So if you were expecting that to happen go read another damn fanfic!**

As usual; review, favorite, alert, love me and more. Remember the more reviews the more inspiration I'll get to write 8D And I promise more of those other pairings will appear (especially Zemyx 3) And haha- more crappy lines from The Great Gatsby. Man I just flipped through Chapter 7 of the stupid book and found this -lame-


	5. An old man came by during my search

To clarify: Yes I _did_ lie. Riku actually does appear in the fiction besides flashbacks, so there. Now shut up and read.

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I swear if Sora didn't shut up I was going to shove one of my old sneakers from when I was seven year old tyke right up his mouth. The second one would surely be shoved into his ass. It was Sunday evening at our house and we were all patiently (or in Sora's case ridden with anxiety) waiting for Kairi and Riku's arrival. Demyx called us earlier from the airport saying they overbooked the flight so he had to take the next flight in the early morning. He also whined to us for ten minutes about how expense a bar of chocolate was over at the airport convenient stores. Sora said he was over-exaggerating about it but I personally agree with the overjoyed musician, as I would never pay four dollars for a single bar of Heresy chocolate. When we got a call an hour later after Demyx's news and found out Riku and Kairi were taking a taxi to our house to visit before they went to their hotel. Mom has been attempting since their call to stop Sora from twiddling his fingers anxiously while pacing around the living room, but nothing seemed to work. It was becoming irritating to listen to, and unlike the know-it-all I had to finish Larxene's essay paper on 'The Great Gatsby' and turn it in by tomorrow (or to be more specific: 14 hours, 25 minutes and 27 seconds and counting). 

"Dear please relax," our mother, Quistis **(1)**, soothingly asked Sora, putting her hands on his shoulders. I saw an apparent flinch in Sora. Another reason why the divorce between my parents wasn't the greatest idea, Sora was still uncomfortable being around mom. I don't blame Sora for it at all; if I had a step-mother that was trying to take the place of my birth mother I wouldn't adjust well either. Sometimes when we talked about her he didn't even call her 'mom' like I do, but would call her by her first name. It put a small sewing needle right at the corners of my chest every time he did that yet I doubt even he knew.

Even though there were protests between our parents over who would get custody over us they came to an agreement. That even though Quistis was my real mother she still had full custody over Sora from her previous marriage. I remember the day that Sora was leaving on the plane to live in Twilight town with her. He cursed her name in wretched spite, wishing that she never became his step-mother, so he wouldn't have to leave his friends and I. It was the first time I felt like crying in public for over five years.

That's when a small pause of silence was disrupted by a tiny ring followed by a knock on the wooden door. Before I could even say who it was Sora had leapt from his spot on the living room sofa and was in a massive fight between his jittering hands and the painted golden door knob. In two seconds the fight had ceased and Sora firmly twisted the knob and pulled the door open.

Sora's crazed joy and hugging of his two best friends left me in a blur for three minutes. By the time I finally came fully into my living room they were already sitting on the couch right by me. I was on the right end of the giant sofa, followed by Kairi on my left, then Riku in the middle and Sora on the left end. The two had definitely changed while I was gone for the past several months. Riku's hair just got a bit longer and he was already towering four inches over Sora. Kairi didn't change too much except she wasn't wearing as much makeup right now, which made her look much better **(2)**.

That's when my azure eyes blinked and my mind blanked. No it _didn't _make her look better. It made her comparison to Namine just far more obvious to me. As she turned to me with a delicate smile my heart ceased beating for a second, yet my cheeks did not tint a light shade of red. It didn't cross my mind for the whole evening.

"How have you been, Roxas?" Kairi sweetly asked, taping her fingers lightly on her long waxed legs. Nothing happened. Why did nothing happen. Did my mind blank and I instantly forgot that first flush on my cheeks the day I met her? Or perhaps she was just cloned to make me believe that she was always there since I first came to the high school in September. It was frightening to think of.

"I've been fine." A simple short answer with barely any kind of special emotion related to happiness in it and I felt dead. Her voice seemed to suck all the life out of me and created a perfect figment in my life. The beauty of spring was over and so was my fling. Perhaps summer would lean for me easier.

"Everyone misses Sora and you at the island. We really wish you two could come back together," she said with a secret plea in her twinkling eyes and a voice full of wishful thinking. I suppose I forgot to mention; Kairi had a small crush on Sora when they were younger. About a few months before our parents initial divorce she told Sora and he rejected her. Though she was now on terms with him as a brother to sister relationship there wasn't a trace of doubt in my mind that she wanted to be the one who would hold his hand through all of his life.

"So how long are you two staying?" A quick question sprang up from the other end of the couch. Peering from behind Kairi I could see Sora fiddling with his fingers. He only did that when he was preparing to have a nervous breakdown. I'm not sure when it happened but Riku told me that last time they were ten and Sora had just learned to swim in Destiny Island's ocean.

"No idea," Riku coolly stated, laying his back on the supported sofa back, face emotionless and smug. Good to know his personality hasn't budged from its place. "Maybe in a month or two, I guess. We chipped in a lot of the money we've both been saving, so it's not a lot but our hotel is pretty cheap."

"I still say we should have gotten a much nicer hotel," Kairi grumbled, crossing her arms stiffly with a frown. Another thing I was never particularly fond about Kairi was that she was a girl of total class. If she wasn't treated in the best manner the worst cast scenario is that she would literally commit homicide. Well it didn't exactly happen _yet _but we did like to make up our own theories.

"Well we could have gotten a motel," Riku sarcastically said, rolling his eyes at the auburn haired girl, "would that make you feel better, Princess Kairi?" Don't my friends go through enough arguments through a semester?

"A rat infested motel, Riku? I rather sleep on the streets!" Kairi exclaimed, her voice piped up just like a spoiled little brat. How was I ever attracted to her at one point in the big bash? I must have been hyped on punch.

"Well I don't mind. More money for me," Riku mockingly retorted, lightly brushing a few strands of silver hair from his eyes.

"Hey if you want to fight at least do it somewhere private," I said with a grief sigh. No time to hear them argue about something as pointless as a place to stay, I still have my report to do.

"No keep arguing, there's no rush," Sora whined as he encouragingly shaking Riku's hulking muscular arm. I shook my head as he continued to irritate Riku into a short lived argument, followed by Kairi intervening to support Sora. Then the two would start to fight again, not even considering for a split nanosecond what they were fighting about. In reality Sora hated it when the two were always fighting, but being away from them for so long must have made him homesick.

On Sora's command the two continued their constant bickering, Sora watching entertainingly with amusement like their argument looking like a retarded old 80's sitcom that just didn't make much sense at all. People still laughed because the network's subliminal messages forced them to. With a shake of my head I quickly retreated from the squabble, the three too distracted to even notice I left the scene.

_You can't repeat the past.  
Can't repeat the past?…Why of course you can! _**(3)**

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay that's it. I could take her rants, sadistic humor and even going as far as sexually harassing a student by _kissing them_. My sanity took all of that but this just pissed me off so bad. What happened that pissed me off like this? It was the day the paper was due and she was absent!

Most people were jumping up in joy because she had apparently got sick with a head cold, but it was so plain to see that even a blind person would know that the only reason they were happy was because they didn't do the paper on time. Teachers really need to schedule days when they get sick, because I skipped half a night of sleep just to finish her damn analysis paper on The Great Gatsby. Damn I hate school.

The whole class was a fly of buzz with chatter. Our second bell telling us we had to be in class didn't ring yet, so that meant we had short-lived free time. Everyone, and by everyone I mean just about every girl, was chatting like little fireflies. Whether it was about some boy they called, or the $500 dollar designer dress they were wearing to the prom. Even a couple had some rumors swirling about other students and some material girls showing off their new jewelry or cell phones that had over sixty features that were completely ridiculous.

"Did you hear the news," a blonde haired girl from behind my desk hushed around her three friends, an invisible smile racked with excitement plastered on. Her name was Rikku; only with two k's instead of one. She was a senior Al Bhed exchange student and had the strangest fashion sense I have ever seen. So much yellow and blue colors and a personality like a supernova. Though the only threat she posed to the universe was her sixth sense of gossip and rumor spread. Maybe that's why she got along so well with the other two class seniors with an unusual fashion sense; Yuna and Paine.

"What news?" Yuna, her cousin, asked in an equally hushed voice waiting impatiently for an answer from Rikku. Though I could not see Paine, an extremely short haired dull brown haired tomboy, I had a feeling she wasn't the least bit interested in her blond haired friend's special 'news'.

"Well," Rikku started, turning her head quickly from left to right to see if anyone was watching their talk, "the rumor is that Larxene is being visited at her house by one of our teachers, and he's suppose to be taking care of her for the day."

Yuna just let out a small fluttered gasp and with the eyes from the back of my head I saw a joyful yet awed smile slip on her glossy lips. Why was I even listening to this? I think Sora is right; I am more like Olette than I know.

That's when a received a slap to my back. My eyes almost bulged out of my sockets and I resisted the urge to let out a scream. After the pain was over I crookedly turned my head to of course see the moron who hit my back with a fist as hard as a rock. Axel.

"How was your weekend?" He asked, a trademark copyrighted grin emerged on his face. I don't know how long his memory span is but my is normal enough to tell me that he was two inches away during Saturday detention from molesting me. It was enough to make me have to suppress the urge to shiver in my seat.

"Oh it was just fine." Besides the fact that you tried to molest me on Saturday in detention of course. Luckily that part _stayed _in my mind.

"Glad to hear it," Axel said, tapping his slender anorexic fingers on his desk. "So did you ask that Namine girl out yet?"

"I told you I don't like her." Lying was always a sign of denial, but I didn't want anyone to know until I actually officially started dating Namine…if I ever got the chance to.

"Please, Roxy, you're crazy for her. It's so plainly obvious by the way you stare at her all the time," Axel said with a shake of his head. That was not- okay so it was true. I _sometimes_ stare, but not _all_ the time.

Right when I was about to scorn him about the matter and say something I was really going to regret a black-haired angel appeared at the front door. "Good day, slackers!" Well a loud one that was lacking the soothing angelic voice you only hear in Christmas specials and church. "My name is Miss Tifa Lockhart and I'm substituting for Larxene while she's sick with the flu," she paused, slamming the door behind her back, so strongly that I thought the door wouldn't slam shut but just unlock from its door clamps and fling outside, and walked over to the wooden teacher's desk. "Now this is English, right?" Before anyone could answer with an unenthusiastic nod or a simple yes she started again. "Well she called me about some paper due and she said she wanted to specifically 'see the look on all the people's faces when they had an extra day to do the paper and they didn't do it', so it'll be due tomorrow."

I groaned incoherently with several of the students, while the rest of the class let out in a hushed bunch of 'yes' and high-fives. It was very common in our class to have slackers. Our teachers were probably more influential on us than our own parents, and they were either bastards, lazy-asses or just incredibly abnormal (more than the recommended amount that is). The idea of us idolizing our teachers was scary, but sometimes my mind played tricks on me and made me think I was starting to act like Vexen. Let's just pray I don't become influenced to look like him. Though knowing the class half of the people that didn't do it wouldn't take the extra day to finish it.

"Though she did say you were all starting a new book," she started, pausing for a moment as half of the class groaned in unison. "It's called 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller." The Crucible? I read it before, but I didn't think she would actually make us read it. Then again it has a seventeen year old whore who has sex with a guy who's married and is around his late-twenties, witch trials and a lot of deceits and bastards. Should have seen it coming from a mile away.  
-------------------------------  
Lunch time was quite…different today. For one thing Seifer must have somehow inexplicably caught Larxene's demented flu bug and wasn't in school today. Another thing was that half our table had disappeared. Hayner and Pence had to go to the library upstairs to finish Xigbar's physics paper and Olette was off theorizing with the _pro_-rumor control group, Rikku, Yuna and half-sided Paine, which only left Namine, Sora and I sitting at the round red table in a state of awkward silence. Sora was quietly munching on the radioactive steamed hamburgers while Namine was drawing more sketches as usual.

Maybe that's what I liked about her so much. Whenever she looked at something her mind took a high-quality digital picture and stored it with an unlimited memory bank. Using those pictures she created simple pencil sketches, but with more depth. Some of them were professionally done art that could sell for hundreds, even thousands. Other times they were just simple little drawings, yet they still held so much deeper meaning than some of the best art work. Her drawings were a recording of life. Without them you would think that nothing in between moments even happened.

"So, Namine," Sora started, swallowing a piece of his sewer meat, "I heard Roxas likes you." Wait, what?!

Namine didn't say a word but just looked up from her sketch book with a dumbfounded look and a tinted pink blush on her cheeks. Oh Sora, screw that fact that Riku and Kairi are here and are probably twice as strong as I am. You are going to be murdered in your sleep for saying that just to break awkward silence.

Before Namine could say another word I grabbed Sora tightly by his wrist, not even caring if the current of his blood flow through his veins was disturbed. Soon enough his blood would be all over the bathroom floor, along with his intestines. He made a small squeak of pain as I started to drag him away from the table, not a word uttered but every action unrecorded. Sora tried to squirm his way out of my clutches but unlike the smartass bookworm I actually got exercise and muscles from all those Struggle matches. The world seemed to disappear in an instant as I pulled Sora into a metal door by the corner of the lunchroom, which led us to what could be the fifth stairwell in the school. "What the hell is wrong with you?" A quick scramble of words cried from my mouth, glaring at my brother like he had just murdered a puppy on a Sunday morning, just for the hell of it.

"Well you were going to eventually tell her, right?" I would never admit I was, but I think he knew the definite answer. "Besides the dance is in three weeks, so why not ask her out?"

"I just can't right now," I said with a groan. Sometimes I envied Sora. He was always so open with all his feelings and never doubted them. For me it was entirely different story. I always felt that if I said or did the wrong thing someone would judge me for it and then hate me. Namine wasn't glamorously popular like her polar opposite but she was my friend first and my not-entirely-secret crush after. Ruining a good relationship over a love relationship was not on my agenda.

Sora made an unhappy sigh and looked at me with disappointment. Before I could even respond to it the monotone bell rang again, signaling the end of lunch. Looking from the bell back to Sora I noticed a whole mess of sprawling people coming back inside from the breezy outside air. Sora had vanished into the midst of the crowd.

Just for a moment after it was all over I thought I had just made the whole conversation up in my head. It wasn't possible though, because then a sob wouldn't want to break from my throat and I wouldn't be forced to chuck it down with my feelings.

_"What will we do with ourselves this afternoon? And the day after that, and the next thirty years?"_

* * *

**(1) **Quistis comes from Final Fantasy 8**  
(2) **Is it me or did anyone else think Kairi looked too much like a slut in the KH1? Seriously; way too much eye shadow.  
**(3) **More Great Gatsby quotes :B Just wanted to point out that Nick said the first line and then Gatsby said the second one. -hinthintshot- 

Sorry for the wait all, busy week D: -had to turn in a lot of work- But yes: Thanks so much ;3; The story almost has 1k hits. Keep it up, for I love you D8! Oh and for the record: Yes I read 'The Crucible' but the story will still have quotes from The Great Gatsby. Also ironically during the process of finishing the last part of the chapter I was told that I had a week to do a paper on The Great Gatsby XD

On the next chapter of 'What's so special about four leaf clovers':

1. Demyx finally enters in (and if the magic fairy cupcake likes you then there might be hints of Zemyx :B)  
2. More AkuRoku (I swear it this time )  
3. Roxas asks Namine to the dance (Okay so maybe more Roxamine D: Gimme a break, I'm just one crazy woman)  
4. NO SoKairi what-so-ever :D  
5. ...There's a number 5 owo

Also I'll be in Washington D.C. from Wednesday-Friday without my laptop so don't expect another update for a while R&R and I love you


	6. Asked what I was looking for in the dirt

Okay since there is suspected confusion about the last small scene of the last chapter let me clear it up for you by saying yes; there is an initial reason why Sora blurted out that Roxas liked Namine. He didn't do it because he hates Roxas or because he wants to make fun of him. The reason is going to be out there soon enough but you'll have to figure it out on your own.

This chapter is dedicated to Saint Patrick's Day. Yes it's April. Then again, in this fiction it's near the middle of March right now. So you shut your mouth

Thanks for the 1k hits and please enjoy the 6th chapter of WSSAFLC (acronyms are so much fun, right ;D)

* * *

It was Saint Patrick's Day. What did this mean? Tourism was coming around. 

Lots and lots of damn tourism.

Now don't get me wrong; I know that tourism is good for our town, seeing as it boosts up economy a lot. Why did I hate the tourism so much? In retrospect I don't hate it any other day. On Saint Patrick's Day though people tend to get smashed on hard alcohol, which means there's a lot of screaming, fighting and people swarming around, not even knowing which way they're going. That is until they end up in the police station jail for about twenty-four hours for bar fights or drunk driving. Wasn't this semi-holiday supposed to be about the color green, celebrating a saint from Ireland and eating some kind of grand feast? Maybe they thought of it being an Irish rip-off of Thanksgiving and so they turned it into a beer fest? Whatever the reason I hated this holiday, and I was just damn happy that it's usually celebrated on the weekends.

I felt like I had a hangover and I didn't even drink a single drop of poison liquid. Mom was at work today at Never Was University and Sora was hanging out on the streets with Kairi and Riku. That meant I had the whole house to myself to contemplate my next move. Since a week ago when Sora decided it would be fun to blurt out to Namine that I liked her I think she started to avoid me. A couple times after that lunch hour she didn't even come to school. Olette just told me she was sick with the flu, but I had a feeling she was sick of _me_. My urge to just pick up our kitchen phone and to call her up to tell her that Sora was an idiot and I didn't like her; then I would just be half-truthful. Lying was never one of my stronger suits.

So doing my best to ignore all the drunken wails of smashed joy I started to play Final Fantasy III on my DS again. This time I would beat that damn Guardia bird. My eyes focused and zoomed in at the game screen as the long-winded cutscene ended at last. He only had 11,000 HP but that cheesy Thundaga rip continued killing Refia, Luneth and Ingus. Arc usually survived because of his magical resistance but he was almost no help at all with combat after his MP was all gone. As I continued the game a light knock came from the door. The first time I ignored it, thinking it was some drunken guy asking for a bottle of beer. Then it came a second time, a bit longer in the echo. My brow furrowed, trying to focus more on the epic fight between Guardia and I.

"Okay I know some is in there so let me in!" Yelped a voice; hints of despair and childish wails boiled in it. That's when the unbelievable happened. I pressed the wrong button the control pad and shut off the power as the final blow to Guardia landed. It was obvious who was behind the door and that someone was about to be brutally murdered with a kitchen knife.

With a groan I suppressed the urge to grab two knifes from the kitchen and staggered to the door. Twisting the knob with no hesitation I opened the door, but not expecting to see a pair of green emeralds in front of me. For a moment I thought some Saint Patrick's day fool came to bug me but then my mind unfazed from my DS game and came to my senses to see who was before me. How the hell did Axel find out where I live?

"Hey Roxy, how're you doing?" The devil grinned out, small tiny drops of water dewing his forehead. Was he just running from something?

"Fine, but how did you find out where I lived?" I asked, arching an eyebrow carefully. In my thoughts I never recalled telling him my address. Of course I continued to deny every fiber in my being that told me to push Axel away from my door, call 911 and tell them that some drunken pyromaniac was trying to rob me. Of course I couldn't possibly do that. My mother always told me to never lie to the authorities apparently.

"Snuck into the school records while that old geezer office attendant was sleeping," he coolly replied, glided his porcupine hair back with a slim hand. Axel must have been talking about Cid Highwind. He's one of three first employees that established Twilight Academy (along with Superintendent Superior and Vice Principal Ansem, General of Darkness) and might have been the oldest. We tend to get most of our lectures from him when he's on a coffee fuel. It tends to be annoying at times.

I hushed a curse under my breath and sighed. "Why are you here?"

"Well my dumb uncle got drunk and left me alone at home, so since I found your records I thought I could stop by," Axel said, using his skinny figure to slide by the wall of the entrance way past me and uninvitingly scampering into the living room. He was wearing something much more different than his usual school attire. There wasn't a trace of green on him (besides his eyes and tattoos) despite the holiday, but he was wearing a baggy red hoodie with his hands in the provided center pocket, formfitting blue jeans and converse sneakers. As always he had two upside down green triangles below his eyes and emerald jades sparkling where his real eyes should be.

"Besides that," he pushed onward before I could tell him to leave, "you seemed a bit surprised. Where you expecting someone else to come to your front door on Saint Patrick's Day?"

"Well I was expecting a friend of mine to come over from Destiny Island today, but I guess his flight might have gotten delayed or something," I responded with a shrug, knowing I would hear a full-blown whiny rant about it when he arrived to greet Sora and I.

"Destiny Island? That place is _hundreds_ of miles from here," Axel sounded, not astonished but more confused. "How could you possibly know someone from there? Is she your _secret lover_ pen pal?" He asked, adding a sly tone to his assumption of Demyx being my secret lover. I would have laughed if I wasn't annoyed at him.

"First off I don't even have a pen pal," I began, holding back a chuckle, "second of all _his_ name is Demyx and he's one of my best friends from Destiny Island."

Axel stared at me for a few seconds, not letting his eyes off me. Why was I starting to feel awkward discomfort? It's totally normal to let your guy-friend that tried to molest you last week to stare at you, right. That didn't even sound like a question to me. "From Destiny Island?" He simply said with a monotone voice. "Did you live there before?"

"Actually I still technically live there. I'm just here for my sophomore year and then I'm going back to live with my dad," I said with a shrug, wandering off during my speech to the couch without even realizing it until I was being soaked into the giant couch with Axel lazily sitting by my side.

Axel just stared at me, eyes fixated on me mysteriously. That's a reason why Axel was always so strange to me in everyway imaginable ripping through my head. His facial expressions and the way he looked at you with his eyes changed from each little syllable murmured through someone's mouth and into his ears. He wasn't a book like anyone else I ever met. Only those that have met him can read properly and sophisticated in a high-class fashion. "So you're not coming back after the summer is over?" He asked more definitely than before, eyes still veiled with mystery.

"Well I'll visit Twilight Town for a month every summer due to child custody laws," I said, brushing several strands of hair out of my face. "But the rest of the year I'll have to stay with my father at Destiny's Island."

Axel didn't reply with words. He just blinked a couple times, perhaps a bit shell-shocked? He then turned his head away looking toward the living room area. "So do you have anything to keep me amused?" Digression seemed to be happily invited into the house.

* * *

Stupid airport, delaying my flight because of two little kids. I swear if those two runts were raised by my mom and dad they would be mentally abused for acting like that in the conveyance of an airplane…for four hours (not even including the damn delay). Seriously what do parents feed into their children's mouths these days that they jump around like they're insane? I hope those kids develop diabetes. 

Well here I am taking a taxi to my two best step-brother friends. Even on Saint Patrick's Day the place looks as serene as Sora described it in his last letter. Sure there were drunken morons around the street but it was much more pleasant and nicer than Destiny Island was on that day. Memories from a couple years ago flashed back to me now. Sora was out with Kairi and Riku for the parade and festival while Roxas and I were hiding from all the crowds and craziness in the comfort of a secluded part of the beach. We played blackjack and poker all day wrong until the crowds died down. Sora and Kairi still question me if I did anything bad to Roxas but I keep telling them I already have a girlfriend and she would murder me if I ever even thought about cheating on her with someone younger than me like Roxas.

We're still together now and she literally clung to me like some kind of a leech, saying not to forget about her and crap like that. Riku asked me the other day when we were going to the airport to catch our flight (which rudely overbooked me) why I stay with Ritzand I always keep telling him that I love her, despite her tendency to cling on to me. As always he starts to laugh sarcastically at me. It's true though, I do love her.

Before I even knew it the orange to yellow gradient taxi van pulled over on the street by Sora's new house and Roxas's temporary home. Wow that felt weird to say. I gave the taxi driver, some weird perverted guy named Desch. Something told me in my buzzing head that my money would get him hookers at some cheap place downtown in who-knows-where. He literally jumped out his car window and started towards the trunk as I pulled myself out of the van. The weather here was much warmer than I expected it to be. It was as hot as Destiny Island was in the summer! Desch started to pull out my two suitcases but then I quickly stopped him before they reached the ground.

"Isn't this your stop?" Desch asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I just want to see a couple people in this house before I go to my hotel," I quickly explained, waving a hand widely, "is that okay?"

Desch frowned at me for a few seconds and then loaded back my suitcases to the ground. "You got ten minutes. If you don't then I'll be meeting you at that hotel."

I made a small gulp as his words, wondering if he would really leave me here without my stuff. That's when I remembered my ten minutes were slowly ticking away. With a small eep I rushed towards the house, watching Desch reenter the van with my peripheral vision. Arriving at the giant oak wood door I knocked a couple times, ignoring the yellow doorbell right by my side. As I stood there waiting for either Sora or Roxas I kept twisting my head back to Desch, who was waiting impatiently by the side of the van. There was an anxious mouse in my head saying not to even let Desch out of my sight or I would regret it. Yet before that voice could continue onto what could possibly happen to all my personal belongings (it started to say something about Ebay) the door opened and some tall red-haired guy that I never seen in my life was standing behind the door. "Um…" I nervously stuttered out as I stared at him. He was staring at me with curiosity with green dots for eyes. "Is this Sora and Roxas's house?"

"Sure is," the guy said with a smug voice. "Name's Axel, Roxy's friend." He quickly snatched my hand and flimsily shook it. Before I could ask him why he was here I was pulled into the house and didn't even check back on Desch. I had to make this quick or I would regret it.

"Sorry if you came here for nothing," Axel said, scratching his neck calmly. "But Sora is with two girls and Roxy is sleeping on the couch. Poor kid fell right asleep while watching Collateral," Axel made a light sigh, dragging me into the living room. Roxas was hugging one of the two dark blue couch pillows as he napped on the couch laxly. "I don't blame him for falling asleep, seeing as the shortest man alive was supposed to be the threatening killer and his co-actor was taller than he was."

I couldn't really comment on Collateral since I never seen it before, but Sora's location was a bit more perplexing to me. "Sora was with two girls?"

Axel made a haste nod, wandering to the kitchen as he talked. "One was a red haired chick but the other had long silver hair. Is this town filled with weird colored hair people, or what?" Wait, long silver hair?

I started to holler out a laugh but was smacked in the head by the porcupine to remember that Roxas was in the other room sleeping. "That wasn't two girls. One of them was a guy," I chuckled a bit.

Axel stared at me for a minute, resting a hand under his chin. "So the red haired girl was a guy? Just when you think this town can't get weirder." Okay now I just think he wants me to wake up Roxas.

I suppressed another over exaggerated laugh, clutching my chest to push it down. "W-what! No, I mean Riku, the silver haired guy!"

"What he's a guy? Who has hair that long?" Axel asked, opening the refrigerator and quickly grabbing a can of either Sprite or Pepsi.

"Well," I started and quickly paused, pondering on a good comeback, "well who has hair that red?" I asked, pointing at his hair with a wagging finger.

Axel stopped halfway in opening the can of caffeinated soda and made a Cheshire grin. "Touché…er…what's your name mullet-head?" Mullet-head?! Now that was insulting.

"It's Demyx, for your information," I whined, crossing my arms and glaring at Axel. Man I was acting like a little kid.

Axel was going to respond back to me but then a loud honking noise came from outside. Oh crap I forgot about Desch! Axel was motioning towards the window to probably scream at Desch for beeping his horn, scared at Roxas would probably wake up from the noise. As he started to yell at Desch for 'disturbing the damn peace' I quickly slinked out of the house and ran to the taxi, afraid it would leave any second now. Luckily for me Desch wasn't a total ass as I thought. As soon as I ran out the house he stopped beeping his horn and I hastily let myself into the back seat of the car. An empty wave was all I left Axel with as Desch drove me off, going over the speed limit.

_There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind..._

* * *

After the weekend ended everything had returned back to normal. At least I hoped it would. Namine was still avoiding me, but when I did catch her in brief eye contact she seemed to lightly brush and then scurry off in her white sandals, bumping into a few people carelessly on her way to class. Larxene and Seifer were back in action and as annoying as ever. First off she went on a rant on how idiots in the class were given an unexpected extension and still didn't finish the paper and then collected the ones that did come in both delayed and on time. Seifer was just being his annoying bastard self. As for Axel… 

"C'mon Roxy, you might as well tell her now that you want to go to the dance," Axel pestered; poking my spikes playfully as he watched me cringed from the uncomfortable touch. I swatted his fingers away from my hair again and got back to read 'The Crucible' for the second time. When Sora came back from the parade with Kairi and Riku we watched some of the chick flicks Kairi brought with her from the islands (I was literally pulled back from going into the kitchen and bulging my eyes after watching the first twenty minutes of Bewitched) and then Axel asked why I wouldn't ask Namine out to the dance yet. So Sora decided to basically explain his idiocy from when he literally blurted out that I liked the blonde girl to the last week of her avoiding me at any given chance. Now he was as annoying as ever, yet I had a feeling he was forcing this out to me. "Soon enough you'll have to tell her"

"No I won't have to tell her," I grumbled, putting my book down to scan the classroom. We were in our final period class, Biology. Our teacher, a dark pink haired guy named Marluxia was reading a book without a cover name, while everyone immersed themselves in their given free period. For some reason Marluxia came in late today and said he 'wasn't in the right mood to teach'. Usually he was much more energetic although with quite an evil side to himself but today his hair was tangled up, blue eyes baggy from a possible insomniac night and he couldn't even focus on his book. "Besides, she probably hates me now. It would explain her avoidance."

"Well," Axel said with a click of his tongue, slouching down in his chair to laxly lay his slender arms on the wooden desk, "either you go out with her…or you can go out with me."

My cheeks tinted lightly at his response. Okay now this simple teasing was becoming unnerving. Wait why the hell am I _blushing_? I'm not gay or bisexual at all! "Damn your motivation," I grumbled under my breath, putting down the book as it got to the dramatic courtroom scene, and walking towards Namine's desk, as she was buried nose deep in her sketchbook. From across the room I could hear a light chuckle from Axel boasting his pride but it had recoil of something much deeper in the aftermath. Disappointment felt lingering around his voice and I wondered.

"R-R-Roxas!" A petite familiar voice squeaked out tensely, a light slamming sound banging on the wooden desk. In the midst of thought I didn't even notice I was right by Namine. Oh great, too late to go back now. I looked across the room again to find Axel's head was turned to the blackboard of the room, staring at the empty space left on it. Just perfect, I had no backup what-so-ever. Might as well negotiate with her.

"Hey…Namine," I paused with a final reply. There was no going back now.

* * *

What the hell was going through my mind when I actually pushed him to confess to her? What the hell is going through Roxas's mind that he can't obviously see that I like him? My emotions are all against me, I just have this feeling they are. This shouldn't be happening. Yet who am I to say that. He _loves_ her and only sees me as an annoyance. So why should it matter if I lead him to going for her when he wants it. I know I should be happy because he'll be happy…but there's an empty pit knowing that it won't be true. 

It was stupid to think I could even be with him. Not only am I sure he's straight but he always watches her. He always talks about her and smiles with purity whenever she's around. So what if I saved him from Seifer that day in the rundown park? It doesn't mean he's going to think about me. Hell he probably didn't even know it was me that saved him. What a fool I am.

My head was still turned to the empty blackboard, occasionally letting my eyes turn to see Marluxia reading some girly romantic book and even letting my peripheral vision lead me to see the back of Roxas's spiky hair style. Then my ears continued to cringe as her nails scraping on a wall voice came down on me. A light slamming sound of her sketch book was heard from a short distance as she continued to hopelessly stutter at his glorious sight. Pathetic worm.

"Um…Hi Roxas," she chimed out her hideous voice, "w-what are you doing here?"

"Namine I want to apologize for Sora last week," he kindly said to that she-witch. That was the kind of person he was. Sometimes arrogant and stupid but when he meant something he said it in the most sincere way imaginable. Pure and tender in so many ways that I could never even come close to counting. Yet he'll never look at me the same way he looked at the devil and I know it. "What he told you was both wrong and right."

"What does that mean, Roxas?" She curiously asked like the little fool she pretended to be everyday in front of him and her friends, as if she didn't know already what he meant. It was simply a matter of toying with his feelings until she could get him to say those crushing words.

"Well…Namine, Sora was wrong to simply make an outburst saying that I liked you," he started, unseen azure moving down to his sneakers. "Though he was right…I do like you." That sound made me cringe inside from a blizzard chill. My eyes clenched shut tightly, trying to wake up from the images in my head.

I didn't see what happened next and my thoughts blocked out all outside sound. I was incredibly frightened and I don't think I would be able to bear it. A knife inside my throat was literally stabbing back the sob inside of it. No way could I ever let Roxas see me like this. I was supposed to be happy for him, not be depressed because I couldn't be with him. Why is everything so wrong with me?

A light tap disturbed my restless thoughts. "Axel…are you alright?" It was his voice again, ringing through my ears. Oh Roxas if you only knew how I was dying inside because of you. How I was stabbing myself without a reason because you were trying your best to chase after someone that would never be me. I can't hate you though and I can't be like this when you're so overjoyed.

"Y-yea I'm fine," I said with a fake cheery disposition, putting my head up and plastering that smile that I always put on for him. I didn't turn to make eye contact with him, but I knew he was smiling with succession at nothing. "I just didn't get enough sleep, is all?"

"Oh," he simply huffed, most likely blinking in confusion to my statement. Yes it sounded so much like the occasional riddle for him to solve. To figure out its' deep meaning but you could never even scratch the surface of the words. It was incomplete until you picked up the glass again. "Well I talked to Namine," he continued, a sardonic hint of succession in his voice happily dinging in his voice.

"So what did she say?" That's right; ask the stupid question to him so he can answer the obvious statement. Please amuse me into thinking that I had no idea what she wanted or what she would say. It was all just a silly lie anyways.

"She said that she likes me too." The bliss in his voice was not hidden at all in that sentence. My heart was cringing. "I also asked her if she wanted to go to the dance," he continued on. I was feeling light headed now. Don't say anymore, Roxas. Please I'm begging you. "She said she would go with me!"

My eyes bulged open and I clutched my sweater. Something happened and then I fell from my chair with a slam. There were some cries and someone was yelling at Marluxia to alert the office and call the hospital.

"Axel…Axel wake up!"

Am I still sleeping? Or am I just waking up?

_It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment._

* * *

Don't you just love plot twists? Seriously I know you do. 

References:

Luneth, Ingus, Refia and Arc- The four main characters from the Final Fantasy III DS remake

Ritz Malheur- Female Protagonist from Final Fantasy Advance Tactics

Collateral- The worse movie ever staring Tom Cruise. I literally slept through the whole movie from start to middle and then middle to finish. If I sleep through a movie the whole way through then it is no good at all in my opinion (I didn't even hate Tom Cruise that much back then)

**Note: I am currently looking for a beta for my next story. It's a Sora/Riku pairing fiction (other multiple pairings will be included) and I have already finished the first two chapters. You must be good with grammar and must look out for mistakes that word would not find. If you're interested please email me (my email will be displayed during this time) and include a short paragraph on why I should let you beta for this story. You don't need to be a writer or have submitted any stories on the site but if you have I will most likely go through some of them just to take a sample of your writing (big brownie points if I like it). By next chapter I'll tell if I have decided on a beta.**

Sorry it took so long by the way. School really got in my way but I'm on Spring Break now (hurray) so I'll work more on the next chapter this week. Ta for now.


	7. I said a four leaf clover with luck

Oh man DX I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever. Something happened with my email account so I can't access it now and I literally had to scourge through my document files to find my FF password since I accidentally pressed on a button saying to retrieve it and so my computer screwed up and I wasn't able to get on ;3; So that pretty much explains that. Now that I found the pass though I can change email account and all, so yay XD -very happy-

Okay in other news sorry for the long wait. This is the prom chapter and is the longest one (which I hope explains why it took so long). As for the beta for the new story I'll put up later I found a friend of mine who said she would be willing to do such for me, so that solves that.

First part of the story is Zexion POV. And yes there will be Zemyx in it (I was a Zemyx groupie before it became popular all the sudden, and it was actually the first KH2 pairing that I loved, following AkuRoku and then Soriku –still remembers a time when there was only about four or five pages worth of Zemyx on FF-) so you can all be happy now…or something. After that it'll be mostly Roxas POV. Then for a little bit we'll go to Demyx POV, then back to Roxas, then to Namine for a short while and finally back to Roxas XD

Chapter dedicated to **Sy Druid**, one of my favorite authors and writer of two of my favorite stories, Ironic Circumstances (finished) and the in progress sequel, Shattered Reverie. If you haven't read them then go read Ironic Circumstances and then start reading Shattered Reverie. IC is long but it's worth it. Plus if you hate OC characters then you'll love the diversity of Final Fantasy characters used in the story (I admit, most of them I never heard of, but at the end of most chapters it's explained where the unappreciated characters come from).

On a special note: my school's prom was actually on Friday, but I decided to update today because it's Zemyx day (6/9). Though by the time you read it it'll be the tenth ;o; Ah well.

-----------------------------------  
'Alright that does it Bill. I'm pretty sure killing Jesus is not very Christian.'  
(Quote from South Park Episode 1105: 'Fantastic Easter Special')  
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Every story has a beginning and middle. Why was there never any ending? An ending would mean that the world has vanished. All the characters in the story would die, their surroundings would disintegrate without a trace and there would be nothing left but decaying memories. No story had a true ending. There was just an empty space in those pages, waiting to be filled by the reader's own wild imagination. What would happen after the two star-crossed soul mates married and had three children. Would the wife cheat on her husband with her best friend who was in reality her unknown half-brother? Or perhaps one of the children would contract a vile disease and could only be saved by taking out his heart and replacing it with his sister's. Anything your mind could ever think up that was reasonably logical could happen in my belief.

Right now the story was transfixed onto one single moment where everything seemed horribly wrong. I was outside the scene of the story, doing my best not to bask in the horrible stench of old people smell and discarded elastic medical gloves of the hospital waiting room. There was only one person besides me sitting on the wide white connected chair-bench. He was someone I never seen in my life. He didn't seem phased with the knowledge that a certain pyro was sleeping behind the door, breathing through an air mask with over several wires attached to various parts of his skin. Of course there was no redundant ignorant smile on his face, but there wasn't a frown either. Just a blank look that made me imply the idea that he didn't even know why the hell he was here waiting for nothing.

That little blonde fool was now inside the room, light sobs echoing through the plain white walls to the hallway waiting room. No one was in the hallway besides a receptionist in the far unseen corner, most likely playing a game of Solitaire on her computer to mindlessly pass the time away. It was the middle of the work day and visiting hours were technically over right now. The only reason I was here with this nobody, hearing regretful droll sobs from Axel's room was because I was dreadfully bored. My homework was as always done by the time I finished the period and when I overheard from across the hall that Axel had collapsed from a stroke. When I arrived in the hospital about an hour after school Roxas and his nobody friend were already talking to a young nurse, a nametag pinned on her bosom reading 'Aerith Gainsborough'. I was staying out of sight from the two, eavesdropping on their conversation carefully.

Axel apparently suffered from a stroke due to low blood pressure. Luckily they responded just in time and he survived but was now under careful surveillance just as an extra measure, secretly saying that this may happen again at any given moment. He would be forced to stay in the hospital for about another week or so which seemed to make Roxas jittery and wrecked. After she secretly allowed Roxas to stop in Axel's room I came into the waiting room hallway, collected like life just began and sat myself two feet from the nobody. He seemed quite strange though, fashioning a mullet hairdo, wearing a blue zipper sweater; neatly zipped up to the top, baggy faded blue jeans and black converses. I was certain he didn't come from our school, so who was he?

That's when he noticed my peripheral vision was watching him, even though I still had my copy of The Bell Jar resting on the grip of my fingers. He seemed a bit distraught so I calmly turned my sight back to the small lettering of the psychopathic view of a suicidal woman. Perhaps her insanity led her to drown herself in the ocean without as much as a word of goodbye. Truly a mind alienated from the rest of society. Yet I digressed.

"Are you one of Axel's friends?" Asked a small shaky voice, curiosity and fright mixed into its voice. It was the nobody that was sharing the bench with me right now. I didn't respond, only fixated my eyes on his anxiety ridden self and then turned quietly back to my book. They always said silence was the best answer. "Well…I'm Demyx, and I don't if I can be considered one of Axel's friends, even though I just met him a couple days ago. I came here for Spring Break, but I think your Spring Break ended a while ago, right? Sora did tell me that your prom night is coming up in another week and your school year should be ending soon. Why did you have Spring Break so early, wasn't it still winter when you had your break and-"

"Shut. Up." I snarled, shutting the paperback book with swift ease. My eyes narrowed at him to shoot rusty knives into what seemed to be his emotional expression. He looked back at me a bit distraught and shell shocked. Obviously he didn't get that silence meant 'be quiet or I will strangle you'.

The awkward silence between us soon faded as the brown haired nurse, Aerith, from before came up to us. Her head motioned toward the closed door which had Roxas behind it, sobbing silently over Axel and then quickly turned back to us. She sighed and pointed at both Demyx and I, and then pointed toward another door near her receptionist desk.

Demyx put his focus on her and then looked back at me quickly as I stood up to follow the nurse. Soon enough he started to follow behind me and only a couple minutes later we were sitting on two different cushioned chairs, staring straight forward at Aerith who was seated on a wheeled black computer chair behind a redwood desk.

"I think I should tell you this rather than I tell your blonde friend," she started, one hand tapping its fingers restlessly and another twirling a ballpoint pen. "I've been Axel's nurse for most of his life and I know him very well. There's a reason for this of course. You see at the age of seven Axel developed Peripheral Artery Disease. He is usually at higher risk for a stroke or a heart attack due to this. The hospital has been funding his medication so he can maintain a normal blood pressure to avoid this. Getting this stroke all the sudden I suspect he might have not been taking his medicine lately."

Demyx looked a bit shocked, hit mouth slightly gaped, yet I didn't make any reaction at the news. That is- a reaction that I never let the naked eye to reveal. "Will Axel be okay?" A stupid question, but sadly enough that dumb question came from me. Of course Axel wouldn't be okay. This 'disease' is a defect in his bodily function and it has absolutely no cure as of now. By the time it will have a cure Axel will probably be in his late sixties or would already be dead.

"Axel will be fine, but as you both know he'll be in close surveillance for another week. We just need to make sure this doesn't happen again too soon," Aerith's eyes slowly tore from our view and quickly moved to a yellow file, paper clipped down to make sure no mind could learn from the contents.

After hearing my rhetorical question answered I picked myself from the blue cushioned chair and let myself out of the room. When I came out I noticed Roxas outside of Axel's room, staring around the small isled waiting room, looking for an invisible Demyx. The mullet haired idiot then scurried out of Aerith's office, waving at Roxas to signal him here.

Roxas quickly took notice of Demyx and headed toward our direction. As he came closer I noticed his eyes were still a bit puffy, most likely from crying too much. How could one that does not even love a person cry over one so much? An enigma that can never be solved perhaps; the true motives of the mortal heart. "How's Axel doing, Roxy?" Spoke up Demyx from absolutely nowhere, the delightful voice obviously masking misery. He didn't act or look as someone with the memory span of an ant; he knew what Axel's current condition was. The question was if he planned on telling the small blonde about Axel's dysfunction?

"Well he told me he was fine, but he didn't know how his blood pressure became so low," Roxas said, sheepishly brushing strands of his hair from his azure eyes. It was impossible to even tell if Roxas was just playing a role in a play or just hiding the logical truth from our hearing ears. Or perhaps Axel, being the closeted sentimental idiot he was, didn't want to crush the boy's heart by telling him that he could easily die at any moment. "So what were you doing in that nurse's office, Demyx?" Demyx? I think I became invisible.

"Well…we were…err," Demyx muttered, glancing at me with despair. I wanted to tell the small blonde idiot the truth, but I knew I would get it from Axel once he was out of the hospital.

Not even meeting Demyx's eye sight I blinked diligently at Roxas and just chuckled. They always said laughter was the best cure in the world. "Before you open doors how about you close the first one you opened, moron?" That's all I could say; a riddle that he wouldn't even solve until it was too late. Now I was bored once more. With a sigh I left both blondes with confused looks and left the hospital room with haste in my feet.

"Wait, what's your name?" Demyx quickly asked, my hand being grabbed by his own. It was warm and felt like the grainy soft sand of the ocean. My face is not heating up.

"…Zexion," I finally replied, not meeting his sight again. Though I could see his look, drilling into the back of my skull carefully so that I could meet his longing gaze—I am not in love, dammit. Yet after only telling my name I quickly took note that Demyx was no longer a nobody. Comprehending this I freed my hand from his latching soft grip and stalked out of the hospital, my face still warm.

I think I'll take a nap. Maybe then I can wake up to this nightmare again, prepared and ready for whatever tries to hit my face.

_To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream._  
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"So did Axel die?" Sora muttered while chewing on one of the green apples mom had bought at the fruit vendor. They only came once every three months or so. Most of them are pretty old; I think they came from Midgar and were Al Bhed like Rikku. She kept bragging this morning five hours before Axel's stroke about how amazing Al Bhed people could grow fruits _apparently_. I don't see the difference between how different races can pick crops better than others. We are all just people, same hands, same feet, and same egotistical monsters as we were.

"Of course he didn't!" I cried, having a secret urge to punch him in every weak spot the frail human body provided. Being his brother I knew he meant it as a simple harmless joke. Yet that was just uncalled for, especially when his family could have been making funeral arrangements by now.

"Don't have to get so upset," he grumbled, furrowing his brow and narrowing his eyes at me. "Honestly you talk like he's your-"

"My what?" I stupidly questioned, knowing I wasn't going to enjoy the reaction from his next words at all.

"Like he was your boyfriend," Sora hollered with a choking laugh, small chunks of mashed up apples spitting from his mouth. Sometimes I wondered if I was related to a dysfunctional chimpanzee.

"At least I can get one." Hello mental word processing, I'm Roxas. Please stop being an asshole to me, because I really want to be your best friend.

To the obvious mind I got a gut bursting laugh from 'yours' truly bastard brother'. With a groaning moan and a small blush covering my cheeks I stormed off to my bedroom and slammed the door shut. Yes. I slammed the door. That's it; I'm taking 'Masculinity 101' courses during the summer break. Now I just need to find a place and a tutor that teaches such a course. I suppose the internet will do.

Locking the door to my room I scanned around the small space that was mine to recreate. I was just too lazy to do so, just as everyone was in the end of the day. My mind flashed back to the incident in the classroom before Axel collapsed. I don't understand this perpetual idea known as 'fate' or 'destiny'. Namine and I literally confessed to having feelings for each other and then the happiest moment of my current life became knotted up as Axel went limp and smashed to the ground. Life was a real bitch, no matter what silver linings she has in her white and blue hair.

Yet for some reason nothing even seemed real anymore. You know how they say that when you're asleep you actually die for a while. You barely remember what your subconscious mind was streaming into your head and when you wake up hours passed you by, and yet you feel like you haven't been out of the scene for even a minute.

I started to become more dazed from my thoughts, thinking this was still some nightmare I was sleeping in, refusing to wake up. No; this was real, wasn't it? Namine _did_ confess to me. Axel almost _did_ die today. In the end those I _did_ was nothing. Sure I was there to smile at Namine's answer and I did come to Axel in the hospital to cheer up his spirits, but both those actions were completely worthless compared to what _they_ did.

Then there was Zexion. I knew there was a reason I didn't like him, and it wasn't because he was a proclaimed 'emo kid'. He was just an enigmatic man, trying to screw with my head until it was finally fixed or broken down beyond repair. What did he mean close doors before you open others? He didn't make sense. Nothing seemed to make much sense now.

No matter what happened today I was dubbed by 'faith' and 'destiny' as completely worthless in the eyes of everyone around me. How depressing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Fast forward, now. It has been a week since Axel's sudden stroke and he was out of the hospital. The prom was scheduled to go on in two days from now, and Namine literally did a 360 degree personality turn. Last week she was timid and continuously avoided me and now she was clinging to my arm, swooning over me in public with a shy yet pompous smile.

Now don't get me wrong, Namine is definitely not like one of those blonde bimbos you see trying to loose their virginity to the high school jock, so they can either sob or brag about it to all their friends. In our school losing your virginity was like a right of passage. I knew freshmen that apparently lost their virginity before they even got into high school, though, so I can't say they're total sluts. It's just so odd for me to see this whole different side of her come alive. My gut continued to twirl around my small intestines when she was ever near me though. It wasn't that I liked her but I just can't get over the mirrored reflection of the other before her.

Yet everything seemed to be so droll around the school; like nothing was even happening when something was at the same time. Most of the girls were taking about the guy they were taking to the dance with them, while I overheard a few of my classmates getting either ditching their date because they're nervous about what could happen or talking about playing the infamous prom prank during the giant dance.

In other words it was going to be one messed up event. Kind of sucks since it's my first one in a while. The last one I went to was the eight grade prom, but I didn't have a date to go with. Luckily Kairi's friend, Selphie, was on one of her revenge schemes to get back at Tidus who supposedly called her fat in some dress. So in the end I wounded up making Tidus jealous at me for taking out his girlfriend.

Though I do agree with him; Selphie did look a couple pounds fatter in that yellow dress.

The school was good enough, for once; to give Axel an extra three days off to recover from what they thought would be 'post trauma'. No idea where the hell they got that from, but he seemed pretty happy about it. For some reason I thought he was too overjoyed for someone who had a near death experience, but he always seemed to be in such implausible spirits it could scare hyper children. His eyes were different though. Usually they were bright jade, bouncing with caffeinated pleasure, a party never ending on the inside. Yet now they seemed dimmer, no matter how wide his toothy Cheshire grin was. Did the party end before it began?

"Roxas…Roxas?" A sweet voice streamed in, a voice that seemed so dead for the long-run of time as of now. My eyes lazily opened to see chunks of blonde hair separated, followed by two stern sapphire eyes starting directly at what seemed to be my very being. Quistis.

I meant to say "Mom?" but because my arms were crossed on the dining table and my head slouching on them for support it sounded more like "Merh?"

"Roxas, Namine just called. She wants you to meet her at the mall to pick out a suit," she said with a bright smile. Something was hiding behind that cool collective smile, but I never could figure out what it was. What could she possibly have to hide from Sora and I? "I'm so happy you decided to go to prom with her. Knowing you I honestly didn't think you would want to go." A smirk sewed itself on her lips, trying to hide from me ever so carefully.

So that's what it was. She was right though. The last prom that was available for me to go to was my eight grade prom, and I didn't even want to go to that one. Besides what difference did it make if I didn't like going to school dances? Everyone just dances like a complete moron.

Deciding not to think of the idea of having a real date to prom I picked myself up from the table, not even bothering to answer Quistis's question, and left for the door. This was going to be a long two days.

----------------------------------

"I think you look handsome in it, Roxas," Namine's gentle voice swooned into my ears, taking a look at me in my suit. Nothing too flashy, just the basic attire of a suit; a tie, a light black jacket that went to my hips and form-fitting black pants that went down to my shoes. "We'll match too, black and white."

"You're wearing your white dress to the dance?" I asked with a perked eyebrow, wondering why she would wear the same outfit she nearly always wore outside of school. Didn't make sense at all in my opinion. Hell it wouldn't make sense in anyone's opinion.

"Of course not," she retorted a frown. Well that cleared that up, "the dress will be much longer than my usual one." Or not.

"Why won't you wear any bright colors?" I asked, sheepishly scratching the back of my head. "I mean, I think a nice light blue dress would be a good tint on you."

"Roxas its fine," she replied with a bright smile. "Now go take off that suit so we can pay for it."

Maybe it was just my personality but I didn't feel like arguing with her right now. Or maybe it was because I didn't want to lose her. I've tried so hard just to get to her after all and now that she was here, what was there left to do but keep her? She was like a doll though. You finally scrapped up enough cash to buy her. It took you months to find a store that sold her. Then when you finally buy her off you just place her on the shelf and stare at her. Ten seconds later, you're looking for a newer doll to look at. It was the curse of society that he just only finally grasped now. I'm just another collector.

About fifteen minutes later I was out of the store in my regular outfit again, one hand carrying the white cardboard like bag with the store's name, logo and motto on it, the other hand being squeezed tightly by Namine.

"Hey, Roxy!" A figure shouted out a few stores down. My heart swelled up with joy at the thought of it being him, but it quickly waned as the figure became clearer. The sitarist that I knew so well was quickly sprinting towards me, a smaller figure trailing behind ever so slowly. "Is this your girlfriend?" Demyx cooed at Namine, looking down at the petite girl with a smile.

Namine blushed lightly from the embarrassment I decided to assume, clutching my arm tighter afterwards. Why was I starting to feel like she was just a lost kitten? The smaller figure, now recognized as Zexion, finally caught up to the sitarist with a bored yet unreadable expression. He simply stared at Namine, steel lilac hair covering his ghost eye from view, noticing how she was clinging onto me.

Yet at his stare I felt Namine loosen up a little, whatever left of her on me shrilling up bitterly on my skin. My peripheral vision turned to her lightly, as Demyx hated when people wouldn't pay attention to him when he was talking, and noticed she was staring back at the self-proclaimed narcissist. A voice talked into my ears lightly, but my mind made no effort to translate it to me. That is until the tall source of the naïve curious voice lightly tapped my shoulder a few times. I quickly blinked my eyes, a light hue of sapphire, much lighter than my brothers, and stared back at Demyx. "What is it, Demyx?" I asked uninterested. My peripheral vision shifted again to Namine and Zexion, who were continuing their silent staring contest.

"How's Axel doing?" He asked, a small smile tracing his lips. Axel. Now my stomach was forming knots again. In all truthful honesty I had _no_ clue. Last time we even talked was when I checked up on him in the hospital almost in tears. Why did I even cry though? I barely knew Axel, he was my friend, but the last time I cried in front of anyone was when Sora was trying to explain to me why our father was divorcing Quistis.

"He's fine, Demyx," a nearly unheard voice quickly answered from a short distance. It seemed like Namine and Zexion's stare off was finished in a draw. "Axel called me yesterday after school ended. He said he wanted to talk to you and Roxas in private. Something about the prom, I believe." Wait, the prom? Did Axel even have a date?

"Well that's good to know, thanks Zexy," Demyx piped up happily, at which point my imagination made me believe Zexion's cheeks tinted light red as he gave off that evil glare that just simply read 'Don't. ever. call. me. Zexy.' I'm just surprised that nothing was done about it.

"We should get going, Roxas," Namine intruded with no hint of remorse for doing such. She seemed perfectly content with barging into the short lived conversation. Or perhaps she wanted to have all eyes on her, as the spotlight was being rude enough to neglect her on the stage. Being either the polite guy I was, or the complete idiot that wanted to devour my sense of reasoning my mind forced me into a simple nod. "It was nice meeting you two," she said with a sickening sweet smile towards Demyx, but anyone with a left brain could tell she was mentally motioning an evil look at Zexion.

Demyx waved goodbye as she pulled on me gently to turn my back, while Zexion was as always being a physical rock. As I left off I could have sworn I heard Demyx and Zexion whisper carefully among each other.

_Should we tell him about-?  
No, Demyx. Let him close the door first._

Again with the damn open door. Whoever keeps opening it for me, I hate them.

_Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope._  
-----------------------------------

It was finally prom night. Everyone was gushed up and fancy looking for this one single night. All the girls in their two hundred dollar dresses were chatting amongst themselves, as their dates got them punch or were simply stuffing up their faces. The school received a permit from the town to host the prom at the abandoned manor, which belonged to some rich guy long ago.

There was a legend, as all abandoned manors have in the world, about the previous owner. As far as the fable goes the manor used to belong to a closeted man named DiZ. No one knew DiZ's real identity and he rarely came out of the giant manor. Residents claimed they saw people come out of the manor though, not him, but his butlers running errands for him, such as grocery shopping or dropping and picking up clothes from the Laundromat. Though a couple times people have seen him leave the house, yet you would never see his face. He was completely cloaked in red robes; his face even concealed in satin red to a point where only one eye and his mouth was revealed.

One day he just disappeared though. A couple teenagers saw a bunch of maids and butlers moving stuff out of the manor and packing up in a giant van. When they asked the butlers what was going they just shrugged and told them 'No point of living in a dead town'. Since then the manor had been left alone and no one moved back into it. Some obviously didn't have the money to buy it, others just believed the rumors that said DiZ died inside the manor and now his spirit haunted it.

Figures our school rented a supposedly haunted place.

The manor was painted the same way that most buildings in the town are painted, shades of light and dark brown and a gradient of orange and yellow mixed together like the twilight sky. I never understood why our town was like this. Yet another myth for another day though.

Axel had called me later yesterday after I came back from the mall with Namine. Apparently he was going to prom, but only to host one of the ill-famous prom pranks. Every year at least one member from each grade banded together to pull something huge at the prom. This year Axel decided to be the sophomore representative of this prank. The pyro got Demyx on the bandwagon, and tried to pull Zexion and me into this mess too. The two were upset, especially Axel, when both Zexion and I refused to assist them in the prank. Who could blame me though, I still had to go out with Namine.

"You know, Roxas," the ever arrogant Riku opened his mouth, lying around my house while I waited for the limo along with Namine to come by, "you don't have to go if you don't want to."

"What are you talking about?" I asked Riku dumb-founded. Of course I wanted to go with Namine…didn't I?

"You like him, don't you?" Did I ever mention I hate Riku. "Axel, I mean."

"Well of course I like him, he's my best friend." He's my best friend. I just purposely pulled a naïve Sora and I didn't like it one bit. Of course I knew what Riku meant by 'you like him', I would just never admit it. Yet I think those aqua eyes could easily see right through me. I was just that much of a loser.

A loud honk from outside the house awoke me from my sleeping daze. "Are you coming, Riku?"

"No, I kind of lost my reason." Poor Riku, his 'reason' left with a red-headed girl an hour ago to go to that same prom. Here he was trying to give me advice on my love life, and his own was barely existent in the first place. Hypocrite.

With a simple shrug I took my eyes off of the broken man who was moping on our couch and hesitantly opened the door. Outside the long black limo was parked, a giant black door open, leading to the darkness that lurked inside of it. The windows were tinted a shade of dark lavender and coming up to it I could see the driver stepping out, waiting to usher me inside like a four year old and close the door for me. The driver, a woman named Scarlet, pushed me into the backseat lightly and closed the door as soon as I entered.

By my side when I turned around wasn't only Namine. Inside was also Hayner, who was grasping a blushing Olette's hand and Sora who was sitting by the auburn haired Kairi. The whole car ride was a complete bore. While Hayner and Olette gushed into metaphoric love puddles over each other on the other side of the limo my arm was being squeezed to death by Namine, and Sora was making stupid jokes with Namine and I, while Kairi was just watching Sora the whole time with a delicate smile. She had an energetic static in her blue eyes as she simply looked at my brother. I know that Sora wasn't very interested in her, as much as she wished the brunette was only focusing on her.

When we got there the iron gates to the entrance were wide open and everyone was flowing like the sea into the manor. The insides weren't extremely decorated since the manor itself looked fantastic as it once was. The only thing that was different was that there were tons of tables to a certain side of the room for people to sit at and the large buffet near it. There was also a DJ station, which was about to start a song by The White Stripes.

_Fell in love with a girl  
I fell in love at once and almost completely.  
She's in love with the world.  
But sometimes these feelings can be so misleading._

Namine had smiled at the lyrics, tugging on my arm quickly. "Let's dance Roxas!" Did I mention I hate dancing.

_She turns and says "Are you alright?"  
I said "I must be fine because my heart's still beating"  
"Come and kiss me by the riverside,  
Bobby says its fine he don't consider it cheating."_

_Red hair with a curl, mellow roll for the flavor and the eyes for peeping.  
Can't keep away from the girl.  
These two sides of my brain need to have a meeting.  
Can't think of anything to do, yea my left brain knows that all love is fleeting.  
She's just looking for something new and I said it once before but it bears repeating._

At this point in the song Sora and Kairi were already mixed into the dance floor, along with me being pulled along feebly by Namine. When did the frail blonde become so strong?

_Can't think of anything to do  
Yea my left brain knows that all love is fleeting  
She's just looking for something new  
Well I said it once before, but it bears repeating._

_Fell in love with a girl  
I fell in love at once and almost completely.  
She's in love with the world.  
But sometimes these feelings can be so misleading._

_She turns and says "Are you alright?"  
I said "I must be fine because my heart's still beating"  
"Come and kiss me by the riverside,  
Bobby says it's fine he don't consider it cheating"_

At that point throughout all the ecstasy flashing lights and the giant wave of dancers near a distant corner I saw a flash of spiky red hair, just glaring at me in anger. I couldn't recognize the face through all the elliptic flashes, but if I wasn't stupid enough at that time I would have realized it was Axel. Of course, I didn't. Though the final verse of lyrics was incredibly ironic now that I think about it.

_Can't think of anything to do  
Yea my left brain knows that all love is fleeting.  
She's just looking for something new and  
I said it once before but it bears repeating._

Right at that note the song was over, and a few seconds later another had began. My brain was so far away from the scene that I couldn't even focus on the song. Namine looked sweetly at me with that soft melting smile, and blinked delicately. "Roxas, should we find our table?" I just made a meek nod to her, and I was yet again pulled away from my location by the porcelain blonde. While being pulled away I looked back to that same corner where the daggers that somehow made it to my heart and the red flash was gone.

At the table Kairi was already sitting down, her hands laced. My eyes trailed around the buffet table from afar and noticed spiky brown hair in the distance, gathering punch. Namine and I sat down and the blonde quickly started chatting with the auburn hair girl. Looking at the two my gut started to twist again. The two objects of my ultimate affection looked like exact twins. If Namine dyed her hair red or Kairi dyed her own blonde you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It scared me a bit.

I decided to quickly avoid nausea by patting Namine's shoulder, alerting her I would be going to get drinks. She just nodded half-heartedly and I quickly left. Sora was still there, a bit dazed in the punch pouring. Luckily another fast paced song popped up and everyone rushed to the dance floor. When I got there he took note of me and replaced his dead expression with an obviously fake smile.

"Hey Roxas, do you know if Riku's coming?"

To anyone hearing this somewhere if you didn't realize Sora had a huge crush on the silver haired guy then you must be as naïve as the brunette himself. "No, he said he didn't want to go. He said he lost his reason." At my words Sora's smile quickly fell, his eyes downcast. "Sora, what's wrong?"

Sora didn't say anything, but quickly left the buffet table, quickly running off into the dance floor. Kairi was sucked into Namine's conversation like the blonde was a black hole. I was sure he was going to go to Riku's side. He was naïve, but not stupid. Unlike me.

----------------------------------------------------------

"Zexy, where are we going?" I lightly squeaked as I was pulled away by the lilac haired boy. Axel had just abandoned me after seeing Roxas dance with Namine. He was obviously mad at the blonde haired girl. I was about to chase him, but then I was suddenly grabbed by the senior.

"Just somewhere quieter," Zexion said with a shaky sigh, "the dance is way too noisy."

We were now going up a flight of white stairs, a light draft of nothing starting to chill up my spine. Zexion seemed unaffected by it of course. When we got to the top Zexion quickly opened a metal door, entering us to a windy draft. He had leaded us to a giant white room, two windows still open. The only thing there was a giant blue bed and curtains that swished with the windy breeze that entered the room.

"Isn't this place supposed to be abandoned?" I asked confusingly as Zexion entered, starting to close the windows slowly. He just shrugged, settling himself on the bed quietly.

"Demyx, can I ask you a question?" He asked his voice so quiet it coursed shivers around my spine. I responded with a slow nod, sitting on the bed next to him. "Are you still going out with Ritz?"

I looked at him a bit startled. Did he hear from Axel about what happened? The unnatural pink haired girl had decided to break up with me while I was still on vacation. It actually happened on the day I met Zexion. She had left me a voice message on my cell phone, which I stupidly left in the hotel, saying she had met some new guy at the high school named Marche. I was pretty upset about it, but I don't think I was as upset as I should've been. "No, she broke up with me." I stated chastely. "Why did you ask?"

Zexion just stared at me with unblinking eyes. No, it wasn't a stare. More like a longing daze. Before I knew it he grasped my shoulders and pulled me towards himself. At that point I felt a warm sensation pressed on my lips. I stared wide-eyed at him, his eyes still looking at me as he encircled his arms around my neck. At that point I don't know what took over me. Maybe it was the pure feeling of his warm lips on my own, but I had closed my eyes as he closed his own.

As if it was a normal reaction I encircled my own arms around his waist. He then carefully climbed on top of me, a small gasp breaking through the imaginary wall of my throat. I could feel him smirk into the kiss as he seemed to take advantage of my moa-gasp! It was definitely a gasp, _I swear_!- and snuck his tongue inside my mouth. The feeling of his tongue riding against my teeth as he moved his hands to tightly grasp my hair was like a drug. I personally hated drugs and would never do them, but I couldn't resist it seemed. I sneaked my arms up higher and clashed my tongue with his.

The gravitational force against us-as he would say-had toppled us over on the soft bed, breaking our heated kiss, leaving us both gasping for breath, his hair flung over his ear to reveal both his soulful blue eyes. We were both sweating it seemed. "Ze-Zexy," I stuttered a small moan, my arms now around his scrawny neck while his hands were pinning me down.

He blinked at me, panting a bit more, looking out of breath. For once he seemed so helpless, and I personally found it adorable. Never had I seen him so vulnerable. "I'm," he started, still panting helplessly, "I'm so sorry, Demyx," he finished, his face horribly flushed.

He pushed himself from my light grasp around his neck and quickly got himself off of me. He was sorry? "I shouldn't have done that, I'm really sorry." I could hear his voice breaking, and it was just killing me. "I…I just don't know." He started to back away farther from me. Was he going to turn away again? No-this time I wouldn't let him.

I sprang myself from the bed dashed to his side, grabbing his hand into a gentle grasp. "Don't turn around on me _again_, Zexion!" His eyes cast themselves up at me, understanding I was being serious by using both syllables of his name instead of one. "Please just—_don't_, okay! I don't want you leaving me just after what we did."

"Demyx…" he trailed off, his hand starting to become mush in the hold of my hand. He was quickly losing his voice so I quickly embraced his frail exterior in my arms, hushing him quietly. I felt my suit attire become wet as I stroked Zexion's back soothingly.

"Its okay, Zexion," I whispered the sweet nothing-no, the sweet something-into his ear, continuing to caress his back, feeling him lightly arch to the touch. "I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

--------------------------------------

"Roxas are you sure you don't know where Sora went?" Kairi pleaded with me, grasping my hands and squeezing them tightly. She was faking it; she knew very well I knew where Sora was. Of course I wasn't going to tell her that the guy she had hoped to be with again was probably swooning over his best friend. So I just gave a small shake and she staggered off, trying to find Sora again with no avail.

Namine sighed a bit, clutching my hand. "Poor Kairi. She really wanted to try and ask Sora to go out with her," like that would ever happen, "but I guess she'll have to learn."

At that moment the previous fast paced song died out and a slow song droned out from the speakers. Namine smiled gently at me and pulled me to the dance floor. I contently sighed as I took her hand in a light clutch and encircled my arm around her hip. She smiled and stared into my eyes as the song went from orchestra to lyrics.

_You seem to find the dark when everything is bright.  
You look for all that's wrong instead of all that's right.  
Does it feel good to you to rain on my parade?  
You never say a word unless it's to complain.  
It's driving me insane._

_If I were you  
Holding the world right in my hands  
The first thing I'd do  
Is thank the stars for all that I have  
If I were you._

The song took another orchestra break, in which Namine took the chance to lean her head on my shoulder cautiously. I took mind to it, but for the sake of the moment I continued to hold onto her.

_Look what surrounds you now.  
More than you ever dreamed.  
Have you forgotten just how hard it used to be?  
So what's it going to take  
For you to realize.  
It all could go away in one blink of an eye.  
It happens all the time._

_If I were you  
Holding the world right in my hands  
The first thing I'd do  
Is thank the stars above  
Tell the ones I love that I do.  
Yea, if I were you_

I felt her clutching tighter around my waist as a louder orchestra break occurred. What was happening? If she was afraid of loud noises then I'm sure she wouldn't last this long in the prom.

_So what's it going to take  
For you to realize.  
It all could go away in one blink of an eye.  
It happens all the time._

_If I were you.  
Holding the world right in my hands.  
The first thing I'd do.  
Is thank the stars above.  
For the ones I love.  
Take a breath and enjoy the view.  
_

_Live the life that I've wanted to.  
If I were you._

The song finally ended, but it seemed time had just froze for us both. When she timidly peeked her head up at me small little tear were twinkling from her eyes. From just that look I had the sudden urge to just kiss her tears away. To make her forget why she was even crying. I dipped my head in to kiss her lightly, but then out of nowhere she pushed away from my grasp and panted lightly. Okay, I thought I would be the one to push away first.

"Namine," I asked quietly, looking at the blonde as she hugged herself and started to shake. Right at that moment I looked at her and didn't even believe we were a couple. I just saw her as her. It scared me. "What's wrong?"

"R-Roxas…I can't," Namine sobbed quietly, refusing to make eye contact with me. "It's not right." Before I could ask her what wasn't right she ran away from the dance floor, the swarm of other partiers crowding my path to follow her.

What just happened? I think I fell asleep in the middle of it all, right?

--------------------------------------

It was too much. I couldn't bear to stay with him any longer. Asking him to dance with me was a horrible idea. Even worse, he almost gave up his first kiss for me. Without a second thought I just ran off, hearing Linda Linda by Paranmaum start up as I hurried out. How ironic. I quickly rushed out of the manor itself, hoping the crowd would slow down Roxas. This was horrible. I had to find a way back into the manor and hide before—

"Namine!" A shrill voice cried out. I swished my head around to see a very angry Olette, accompanied by Hayner who had his eyes closed and was laying his back on the wall of the manor like he owned the place. "What are you doing?!" Making the biggest mistake of my life.

"Wh-what do you mean?" I said, trying to choke back another sob. I knew my eyes were already a bit read from the silent sobbing from before.

"Don't act like you don't know! We saw you run out of the place, right when Roxas was about to kiss you!" Oh crap. "What are you thinking? Roxas likes you and you like him back, so just kiss him!"

I couldn't stop a somber chuckle from escaping my lips. Olette was probably going to look at me like I was insane for the rest of my time with her but that didn't matter to me. "No, that's not true," I said still lightly chuckling, wiping my eyes of my crestfallen tears, savoring the confusion in her look. "I like Roxas…I do. But he doesn't like me that way, no matter how much I want him to."

Olette gasped at my assumption-more like my declaration-and rushed over to my side. "What are you talking about? He can't stop talking about you." I could hear Hayner snort at her last comment, though she was too caught up in our moment to hear him.

I shook my head furiously and sighed again with a chuckle. "No, he just likes saying that because we're so close." That and Kairi blurted out during over conversation that Roxas used to have a crush on her, which definitely got me thinking. "He likes someone else _much_ more."

"But who?!" Olette cried, shaking me like mad. Peeking over the frantic girl's shoulder I took note of her date, who was smirking evilly at me. So he knew too. Her I thought I was being smart.

--------------------------------

What was going on? Namine had just ran off into the crowd and disappeared all together. I found Hayner and he said that she had left somewhere with Olette. I let out a hazy sigh and started to slump around the giant ballroom. Somehow I ended up entering a giant garden area. No one was there, but it was beautiful. The perpetual sunset radiantly shined, and made me remember the nights at Destiny Island. It upset me a bit that I wouldn't see any stars for a long time. I made a light sigh, finding a good spot in the middle of the garden to sit down and watch the still sunset.

"Hey there, Rox," a narcotic voice rang out behind me. It was the person I wanted to see the most and the same person I didn't know even existed anymore. Axel. A small smile twinge onto my lips. I don't why but Axel could always make me smile. It was like a contagious bug, right from day one.

"Hey Axel," I replied cheerfully, trying to forget about what happened with Namine. "How did the prom prank go?"

"Horrible," Axel grimaced with a scowl. "We were going to set off the sprinklers but some idiot decided to talk to his friends about it yesterday in school and the staff overheard it. Bastard."

I just offered a small nod. On one hand I'm disappointed that Axel was bummed out by what happened, but on another I sort of wished it had been done. Maybe then I would be with Namine. "So what're you doing out here, Rox?" He asked, raking a hand through his hedgehog spikes. "Aren't you supposed to be with Namira?"

"That's _Namine_," I groaned annoying at Axel who just shrugged, "and she sort of left."

_Closing time-  
Open all the doors and let you out into the world._

The soft lyrics of another slow song sung out from the open doorway leading to the prom hall. "She left you?!" Axel gasped, a bit shocked. I looked at him and nodded. "That no good bit-girl." I chuckled at his lame cover up. "I mean, who in their right mind would leave someone right in the middle of a date?"

_Closing time-  
Turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl._

"Well, it's fine. I can always talk to her about it when we come back to school on Monday," I nodded with a smile. In my mind though I doubted even making normal eye contact with her again.

_Closing time-  
One last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer._

"No it's not fine," Axel snapped back fuming. What got into him? "I mean, that's not fair. You're too good for that."

"Too good?" I asked perplexed. "Too good for what?"

_Closing time-  
You don't have to go home but you can't stay here._

"Too good to be treated like that," he said, looking over me with earth shattering jade hues. Those eyes…what exactly did they hide from everyone. "You're so good to everyone, and yet you always seem to get the short end of the stick. It's not fair at all."

_I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
Take me home._

"Well that's how life goes Axel," I shrugged without a care. I felt like I was some kind of drunken haze. "Can't always expect to win."

"But you always get that short stick. Especially with that one time with Seifer," Axel grumbled back.

_Closing time-  
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from.  
Closing time-  
This room won't be open till your brothers or your sisters come._

"Well that was my fault and-wait," I interrupted myself, "how did you know about that? The only person I told that to was Sora!"

_So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits.  
I hope you have found a friend._

"Seifer told me about it," Axel huffed out in disagreement, crossing his arms.

"You're not even friends with the guy!" I snarled behind my teeth. "Axel, how do you know that?!" No reply. "Answer me, dammit!"

"Fine, I will!" He growled back at me. "It was me! I was the one that saved you from Seifer that day, you happy?"

"…what?" I looked at him dumbfounded, my sapphire eyes blinking at the pyro. He_ saved_ me? "That was you?"

"Yes it was me, Roxas," he sighed out, his tone more hushed now. He turned to me and simply stared down my eyes with his own hypnotizing jade ones. "I'm the one that rescued you from Seifer that day."

_Closing time-  
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end._

"But why?" I asked, still looking at his eyes. Why didn't I leave contact with him yet? Maybe because I was scared. Scared that if I broke the contact then he would disappear forever. Disappear from the face of the Earth and never return. Was this what Zexion meant by closing doors you already opened?

_I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
Take me home._

"Do I need a reason?" He asked, his hushed tone becoming huskier. My face became horribly flushed as he took his hands and put them on my cheeks. What was going on? Isn't this the part where I push him away and coldly stare into his dejected look and tell him to never come near me again?

"A-Axel," I quietly moaned, continuously staring at his eyes, unable to look anywhere else. I just received the sweetest smile I ever received just from that. But who was I to judge how beautiful someone's smile was? Then without warning he closed an invisible gap between us with his lips softly coming down on my own._  
_

_Closing time-  
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from._

The kiss was incredibly sweet. I would obviously say that back then because he was my first, but even now I still say that his kisses were the softest—and roughest I've had. My eyes closed at the precise moment of contact, the feeling of the kiss making me forget where we were. Anyone could see us out here—even Namine. Though I don't think I cared. Axel moved his hands from cupping my cheeks to my neck and then to my torso, scouting every area of my body. I moaned into the kiss and he just received encouragement from it.

_I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
Take me home._

I suddenly felt his steamy hands sneak right under my black tux jacket and white shirt. The burning sensation caused me to moan horribly loud into the kiss, giving Axel the best opportunity to sneak his tongue into my mouth, which he did. We were suddenly engulfed in a liquefying French kiss, our tongues clashing with each other quickly.

_I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
I know who I want to take me home.  
Take me home._

It was only by the time his hands swarmed their way down to my belt did I finally realize what was happening. I quickly pushed his hands away from me and broke the heated kiss, stumbling over on the grassy garden. Axel was still in his place, looking down on me as I stumbled to get myself up. "R-Roxas. I'm sorry…I didn't mean to—Roxas!"

I couldn't hear it anymore. I was far too confused with everything. This feeling made me sick. I quickly dashed back into the prom hall, avoiding the dancers skillfully and landing myself into back into the limo, but not before hearing the last heart breaking lines of the slow song.

_Closing time-  
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end._

"Take me home," I asked Scarlet, my voice cracking up. She knew that the others weren't here yet but she understood that I needed to leave from my obvious sobbing. Without anymore words she drove off from the street corner, heading done the twilight lane.

_I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound._  
-------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N Notes:** Holy crap. Longest chapter I ever written to date. Over 8,000 words, 13 pages and on Verdana font size 8. For those that don't know how small that is opening up Microsoft Word and find out. Anyways yes, for all those that didn't catch the songs they were (in order): Fell in love with a girl by The White Stripes, If I Were You by Hoobastank, Linda Linda by Paranmaum (okay the lyrics didn't appear, but if you want to see them just look around Google and you should find them) and Closing Time by Semisonic. Also the quote that Zexion uses in the end of his POV is a quote from The Bell Jar (which I mentioned he was reading in previous chapters. See my notes _do_ mean something XD)

Hoped you enjoyed the ooziness of Zemyx, AkuRoku and a brief Roxamine moment that I supplied you with. Only two chapters left now. Let's all feel bad for Roxas because he has to go through such crap. You will also have to feel bad for Axel, Namine, Demyx and Zexion. Why Demyx and Zexion…well you just have to wait.

Oh and if there's enough request I might throw in a bonus chapter in the end that'll tell you what happened with Sora and Riku during the prom :D

Until next time-  
_Yours truly, Smyde._


End file.
